Second Chance
by Tashasaurous
Summary: AU but not part of "The Betrayal of Light" series; What if Axel somehow survived his suicidal attack and joined Sora to defeat Organization XIII? For one thing, the red-haired nobody is falling for more unexpected surprises.
1. Fading Away?

**Second Chance.**

**Note: AU, but not part of any of my current stories. Also, I own nothing here.**

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><p><em><strong>CH1: Fading away...?<strong>_

Having just escaped from being killed by his former friend and ally Saix, Axel arrived in the pathway of darkness, but he was struggling, clutching onto the deep wound on his side. It hurt like hell. He knew that he was losing a battle to live. But then again, what can he possibly live for now, when everything, both in his human-life and his life as a Nobody, was taken away from him? How can he possibly go on now?

As a human and as a teenager, Axel, back then he was known as Lea, lost his life, his parents, his first best friend, his home, and his heart. Now, as an adult Nobody, he lost his new best friend, and lost the will and any hope to get his heart back. Maybe he was one of those who were never meant to exist in the first place. Maybe he was accidently born while he was forbidden to, and god probably decided to punish him that one day he would suffer so much, never allowed to have friends, freedom or love.

It wasn't fair.

All Axel wanted now was to see his best friend Roxas, the Nobody of Sora who strangely returned to human form shortly after the birth of Roxas. No matter if those two were the same person, Axel knew that Roxas was different compared to Sora. Heck, Saix has changed so much from his old personality as Isa.

But now the redhead had to hold on. He had to. Or else who would rescue Kairi? Axel knew that he was his own fault that the Princess of Heart got into this mess, also involving Sora, and all because of his own selfish desires to bring Roxas back. That young Nobody made Axel feel his emotions again, almost as if he had a heart again. It was strange, and he didn't want to admit it, but now, he can no longer deny it.

Having Roxas around made Axel happy.

Now, Axel felt guilty for what he has done. He remembered Sora being angry at him, and he didn't blame the kid. He hasn't felt guilt in years. Actually, he felt guilt when Roxas left the Organization.

"_You can't turn against the Organization! You get on their bad side and they'll destroy you!" Axel exclaimed. He didn't know why he shouted this, but he felt...desperate. Desperate to keep his friend safe, no matter what._

_"No one would miss me." Roxas simply replied, before walking away, much to Axel's horror._

_Shaking his head, Axel protested, "That's not true!" but he was too late, as his friend walked away. He then added in a ping of sadness, and guilt, "I would." feeling his chest heavy. Why though? He had no heart. He shouldn't feel this way._

The memory was painful, and Axel tried over and over again to forget it. He wanted forgiveness. But for someone like him, an assinator, there is no forgiveness.

Feeling dizzy and losing consciousness, Axel tried harder to stay awake, but he was losing. "No...fading away...I can't...not yet..." he said, panting and breathing heavily. Collasping on the floor, Axel knew, then and there, that this was it. This is the end of him-again, and this time, forever.

His last thoughts before he lost consciousness was, '..._Roxas_.' before everything went black.

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><p><em>"Yo, Roxas!" Axel called out as he found his blonde-haired best friend on the top of the Castle, the youngest Nobody gazing at Kingdom Hearts, the hearts floating up that acted like stars. Standing behind his best friend, Axel asked curiously, "What you doing up here?"<em>

_"I was just wondering," Roxas replied, "When Kingdom Hearts is completed, we'd get our hearts back, and we'd feel them again. What was it like to feel a heart?"_

_Surprised and puzzled at this question, Axel scratched the back of his hea while ruffling his own spiky red hair, admitting, "I don't know. I guess we'll find out."_

_Nodding, Roxas said, "Yeah, you're right."_

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><p>Somehow awakening from what he thought was a dream, Axel blinked his eyes open, a bit amazed that he was still alive. Forcing himself to wake up completely, the redhead pushed himself up, struggling, but finding the strength to continue on, and he panted. He realised that he can still move, and he could also...sense others close by. Not just the Dusks coming to kill him, probably under Xemnas' orders, but also to kill incoming intruders.<p>

As he walked slowly, finding enough strength to at least fight, Axel's eyes widened as he recongised who were heading to possibly towards the Realm of Darkness.

Sora and his friends had arrived, and they were in trouble, outnumbered by the Dusks.

Not wanting to have them get killed, knowing that Sora is now Kairi's only hope, Axel summoned his chakrams and approached them while fighting off his former followers. Axel knew, he could no longer live, except for one thing; atonement.

"It's no use!" Sora exclaimed as he, Donald and Goofy were trapped in the middle of numberous Nobodies.

"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!" Axel shouted to get their attention, before he leaped and slashed at two nobodies, wanting to give them a chance to escape. "Get goin'!" he told them firmly.

Sora, shocked at Axel's sudden change of sides, asked, "Why?"

"Don't ask!" Axel argued, "Just do it-!" he was cut off guard when several nobodies leaped onto him, causing him to crash onto the ground. He screamed as his wound was getting worse. Trapped underneath the Dusks, Axel decided to accept his fate.

Surprisingly, Sora destroyed the nobodies that trapped Axel and asked, "Are you okay?"

Looking at the teen in disbelief, Axel asked, "Why...why did you save me?"

"Why? Does it need to have a reason?" Sora asked back, and for a moment, Axel could see Roxas in Sora's eyes. The nobody of this boy staring at him, and this is when the red-haired nobody had finally come to accept that Roxas is back were he belongs, and will never be free again, but it seemed that he didn't mind. If only Sora knew that.

Nodding, Axel stood back up, and with the help of Sora who was slashing hard with his Keyblade, fought against the dusks. Both of them, Donald and Goofy were still fighting, but it seemed that the numbers were growing instead of decreasing, which was horrible.

'_Damn! These guys just don't know when to quit, do they?_' Axel thought as he and Sora stood back to back, once again trapped, but their weapons still in place. Axel panted, his wound getting even worse.

"I think I liked it better when they were on my side." He admitted in near exhaustion.

"Feeling a little...regret?" Sora asked in a teasing tone.

This made Axel smirk. He hated to admit it, but he liked this kid too. But his chest felt heavy again. This time he knew, there was no escaping his fate, and he wasn't going to try to. If this is how his death was going to be, then so be it. He knew how to get them out of this situation, but it would mean...the cost of his own life.

So, pretending to act like it's a casual day, Axel looked back at Sora and replied with a smirk, "Nah, I can handle these punks. Watch this!" and with a great serge of power within his body, using all of his strength, Axel screamed as he unleashed a gigantic torrent of flames which obliterate the Nobody horde.

Within the flash, Axel collasped onto his back, feeling himself disappear. He lost all of his strength, and knew that this time, this was definately the end of him, for real. But at least he did the right thing before he would die. He was ready to accept it.

Sora, seeing this, rushed over to his side and knelt down, scared and horrified of what's happening. At the moment, Sora didn't care if Axel was a nobody or not. The redhead had saved them, and now had just sacrificed himself in order to do so.

"You're...fading away?" Sora realised, tears in his voice.

"Well," Axel began weakly, "That's what happens when you put your whole being into an attack. You know what I mean?" before correcting himself, "Not that Nobodies actually HAVE beings...right?" he smiled, but felt like he wanted to...cry.

Gazing at Sora, Axel told him, "Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi." then remembered and added, "Oh, almost forgot...Sorry for what I did to her." there, he made the apology and he braced himself to get yelled at.

But instead, Sora suggested, "When we find her, you can tell her that yourself." much to his surprise. Axel couldn't believe this kid. Man, the Keyblade wielder was way too nice for his own good, but then again, it somewhat made Axel feel a bit better, relieved that he was forgiven.

Even so, his time was up. "Think I'll pass." he declined, "My heart just wouldn't be in it, you know? Heh, haven't got one." he laughed weakly at his own slight stupidity. It was strange, how the feeling of death was making him both feel free yet scared.

"Axel, what were you trying to do?" Sora asked, saddened for the dying human-formed nobody.

If Axel was going to die, he wanted to at least admit the truth to Sora. "I wanted to see Roxas." the redhead answered, "He...was the only one I liked... He made me

feel...like I had a heart. It's kind of...funny..." memories of his days with Roxas, the good and fun days, filled his mind, and Axel could feel something form in his eyes, and he realised that they were tears. He hasn't felt them in years before he died as a human.

He glanced at Sora with a sad smile and admitted, "You make me feel...the same." his voice quivering. Feeling closer to death, he knew that he didn't hurry, then Sora and the others would be trapped here forever.

"Kairi's in the castle dungeon..." Axel finally said, concluding, "Now go." weakly holding his hand up shakily, and with the last of his powers, summoned a corridor of darkness, before falling limp, his eyes closing and his head slightly to the side on the ground.

But unexpectly, Sora grabbed hold of Axel's hand, and just before the red-haired nobody would truly disappear, Sora muttered his name, and the next thing that happened...a curaga spell gathered from Sora's body and seeped into Axel's, the darkness that was causing him to disappear was fading, and his body was being healed.

Sora blinked in shock at what just happened, and, Axel gasped, snapped back awake and, suddenly feeling half back to health, his wounds all gone, slowly sat up with Sora's help, as Donald and Goofy approached, also shocked at what just happened.

"W-what happened?" Axel asked, staring at his hands, still in shock. "How did I...? he trailled off in sheer disbelief.

"I don't know, but," Sora began uncertainly, staring at his own hands, and admitted, "I think my curaga spell just saved you, and I didn't even call for it." to which Axel glanced at him.

"But how?" Axel whispered, "I was ready to die." he didn't understand. How can a curaga magic save him, even if the one who had the ability to use the spell didn't even call for it.

Unless...

'_Roxas...did you save me?_' Axel thought. '_Did_ _you...are you still awake, even though you're with Sora now?_'

"That was...really weird." Sora admitted. "But, anyway, Axel, what are you gonna do now?"

Hearing this made Axel pause. He had suddenly been given a second chance, but why? In truth, he had began to accept his fate to die and disappear forever, but now that he's still around, and, well, in a company of those who hate him, he had no idea. He wanted to help in rescuing Kairi, but he didn't feel comfortable in doing so.

"I don't know." He admitted, "I should've just disappeared, but...*Ugh*, I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Donald asked, a bit annoyed. While he had to admit that he had to be grateful that Axel saved them from the Dusks, the white mage still hated the red-head, due to him being a member of Organization XIII.

Axel shrugged, "For one thing, I ain't gonna be on the Organization's side again. The moment I left to find Roxas, they want my head-literally. Though they wanted his head too."

The trio blinked in surprise and glanced at each other at this, yet another reveal was upon them. Goofy then asked, "Roxas was part of Oraganization XIII too?"

Crap! Axel made a slip there. Rubbing the back of his head, he admitted, "Well, yeah. He was the last member to join in and-" before cutting himself off as he realised what Goofy just said and asked in shock, "Wait a sec! How'd you know Roxas?"

"Well, uh, we didn't actually know him, but we have a photo of 'im in Twilight Town." Goofy answered as he pulled out the photo and gave it to Axel who looked at it, his eyes widening. It was the photo made from the Simulation Twilight Town-a fake of Roxas, and those three kids when Riku and DiZ kidnapped him to revive Sora.

"I was the one who somehow knew his name." Sora spoke up, causing Axel to glance at him. "For some reason, the name just popped up into my head."

So Sora didn't know the entire truth about his nobody yet he was automatically given his nobody's name, all because of this photo? Who gave this to them?

"This is how you managed to get here?" Axel asked.

"Something like that." Sora nodded, before saying, "Anyway, we should get going. Kairi's waiting for us."

"Guess I'd better commit suicide to get off your backs." Axel sighed as he stood up, knowing that he didn't belong anywhere.

"Suicide!?" Donald and Goofy exclaimed in horror.

"What? Now I'm not even allowed to kill myself?" the red-haired Nobody asked in annoyed sarcasm. "You guys know that I don't exist."

Sora stood up and pointed out, "At this point, I don't care. You saved us, and even though you don't have a heart, I think we can't make you an exception. That's why I want you to come with us."

"What!?" Axel, Donald and Goofy asked in shock.

"Whoa there, kid!" Axel shook his head, "You seriously trust me being around with you? What kind of tree did you fall from?"

Donald went up to Sora and asked, "Are you nuts!?"

"It's just..." Sora began, "Maybe there are a few Nobodies that are different from the others." He explained, "Like with other things we've encountered in our journey. Like how we thought we'd never see Leon and the others again, yet we got to meet up with them and some of our other friends."

Goofy then remembered, "And how some of us thought Iago would still be a bad guy but actually helped us out and saved us back in Agrabah, kinda like what Axel just did."

"And time-travel too!" Sora added. "I believe that there are things that are impossible can be possible."

Even Axel was amazed by this. He never thought about any of this, or even think that he would survive and gain Sora's trust, even though he didn't expect to get that either. It wasn't on his list, that's for sure. Still, he felt a bit nervous about this.

"You sure it's a good idea?" Axel asked.

"I'm positive." Sora nodded.

"Everybody! Thank goodness!" a new voice joined them. The four of them turned to see that King Mickey had finally joined up with them again, but when the mouse king stopped to greet Sora, Donald and Goofy, he blinked in shock at the sight of Axel turned away slightly.

"Oraganization XIII!?" Mickey exclaimed.

"Wait, your majesty!" Sora pointed out, "Axel saved us from a bunch of Nobodies and even opened a portal for us." before he and Goofy went into full explaination on Axel's atonement, while the said redhead felt even more uncomfortable, and Donald tapped his foot, getting impaitent and even more annoyed.

Once the explaination was finished, Mickey glanced at Axel who looked at him and the others again, still feeling uncertaind, the king finally nodded and replied, "Well...I guess there are a few exceptions." much to Donald's shock.

"You really don't mind?" Axel asked.

Mickey smiled, "Yup! You know as they say, 'Can't judge a book by it's cover'!"

Hearing this made Axel softly chuckle. Yeah, even he knew that speech. Nodding with new determination, he said, "I'll lead you guys to the Castle, but we have to be careful. The Organization are more vilgilant since Rox' and I deserted and, well, what you guys did."

Nodding, the red-haired Nobody lead the four heroes into the portal to his former home, all five of them knowing that the biggest challenge was yet to come. For one thing, Axel was unaware that something else was going to happen to him.

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><p><strong>This idea was nagging me and while I want to finish my other stories, I've been staring at the screen on the stories, completely blocked, until this and the sequals for "The Betrayal of Light" came along, so, in order to prevent spoilers, I decided to do this.<strong>

**Please review, tell me what you think, and look out for more chapters.**


	2. Confronting Memories

**Second Chance.**

**Note: I've combined both games and manga of Kingdom Hearts into this story, since I love the manga so much yet the games are awesome too. I don't own any of them, though.**

**Oh, and the italics are both memories and in thoughts, and the bold are the notes, and bold and italics combined are exclaimations(if that's a word.) and titles of the chapters.**

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><p><em><strong>CH2: Confronting Memories.<strong>_

_"Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?" Axel grumbled to himself as he entered Twilight Town to find the final member of Organization XIII, one whom Xemnas confronted earlier. According to Saix, the newest Nobody is the nobody of the Keyblade wielder Sora who recently just turned into a heartless before strangely returning back into a human being, while his nobody, who was just named 'Roxas' exists at the same time...well, not really existing, but you get the point._

_Thus far, Roxas refused to join and just walked away, and it was Axel's job to get the kid to change his mind. Normally the redhead wouldn't do that, because really, he didn't find himself the type to like or take care of kids. Besides, they were Nobodies-no hearts and everything. Finally, he found the lone kid walking through the streets alone, passing three human teenagers eating sea-salt ice cream._

_Roxas stopped, and glanced at the kids around his age, and Axel caught up, placing a hand onto the boy's shoulder. When the spiky-blonde haired nobody gazed up at him, Axel could see that the boy was Sora's nobody, because the two had the same faces and same eyes, not that Axel met Sora before. The blonde hair though, reminded him of someone else he met years ago when Axel was a human himself, around Sora's age._

_"Lookin' for something?" Axel asked._

_The younger Nobody didn't respond, just stared up at him, like a zombie, which, although Axel didn't have a heart, it was starting to creep him out._ _Instead, Roxas turned back to where the other three kids were with their ice cream, and Axel followed the gaze, and realised that for a new nobody who was just born in a matter of a few hours, already wants something to eat._

_But really? Sea-Salt Ice Cream? Axel recalled something like that when he was a human, but the name of it, and the flavor of actual salt in it...just sounded disgusting. Still, if that's what Roxas wanted to try out for the first time, then...maybe it wouldn't hurt to try it out. After all, it was his job to bring the kid in._

_"Want Ice Cream?" Axel offered._

_Roxas looked at him again, then slightly nodded._

_Well, eating a salty flavoured ice cream wasn't on his job list, but Axel knew that this might be a way to get the kid to join in. So, after buying to Sea Salt Ice Cream popsicles, the eighth member of the Oraganization gestured the kid to follow him up on the clock tower, since at the moment, it felt like a perfect hiding spot, not to mention for privicy. Both of them sat on the edge, ice creams in hand._

_Axel watched as Roxas took the first bite, and, for the first time all day, the boy finally spoke, saying, "It's...salty...but sweet." then continued eating._

_Sweet and salty? Axel had to admit, he was a bit curious now himself. Looking at his own ice cream in disgusted nervousness, he took his own bite, and the moment it hit his taste buds that he immediately sticked his tounge out in disgust, muttering, "Blegh.", wanting to spit it out. But then the after taste came in, and Axel was surprised that it was sweet as well as salty. Now he understood why it was called Sea-Salt Ice Cream._

_He glanced at Roxas again, and finally replied, "It's called Salt-Salt Ice Cream. Got it Memorized?"_

_"...I think so." was Roxas slow reply._

_Man, this is gonna take a while. Axel sighed, then said, "So, you're Roxas, right?" when Roxas didn't answer, the redhead continued, "Listen, I work for that guy you met earlier; he's my boss. He'll help you."_

_Roxas gazed at him, mildly curious like a new born baby._

_"We're the same as you." Axel explained, "You, me and the guy you met are Nobodies-those without hearts."_

_"Without...hearts." Roxas repeated._

_"Yup." Axel nodded, "But we're special, because there are special nobodies who take up human forms. You should consider yourself lucky. Anyway, we want to help you, to help you learn and remember. That's one of the reasons why we want you to join us."_

_Roxas still showed no signs of any other emotions, just blank like a complete and total zombie. "...Join you?"_

_'_Ugh, even I wasn't this bad when I was born as a Nobody_.' Axel grumbled in his mind. Then again, since Sora returned to human form and held onto his memories, Roxas was like a new born zombie child, which, again, is creepy._

_Eventually, he sighed and said, "Like I said, we want to help you. Whadd'ya say? Will you join?"_

_It took a good ten minutes for Roxas to reply while both of them finished their first ice cream, and, just as Axel was about to give up, the youngest Nobody finally nodded, saying a soft, "...Okay."_

_"Really?" Axel blinked, then smirked, stood up and helped Roxas stand up as well, saying, "All right, let's head over to your new home. Oh, before we do." remembering something, Axel pulled out a black coat just like the one he was wearing, except that it was made a size to fit Roxas, and then helped the kid to put it on._

_"These coats that we're wearing will keep us safe from the darkness." Axel explained, "As long as we wear them, we can go through corridors of darkness with no problems." before looking at Roxas from shoulder to foot and smiled at the way the kid looked. "Looks good on you."_

_"...Thanks." Roxas said._

_Axel, sastified, nodded, "No prob. Oh, and one more thing, introductions should be made. First off, our boss's name is Xemnas-X-E-M-N-A-S."_

_"...Xem...nas." Roxas slowly repeated._

_"Good!" Axel nodded, "You're learning already. Now, secondly, my name is Axel; A-X-E-L. Got it Memorized?" he tapped the side of his head with a smirk._

_Unfortunately, Roxas instead slowly said, "Ax...cess."_

_'Axcess!?' Axel thought in shock, then repeated, "Axel. AXEL."_

_"Ax...el." Roxas replied again._

_'_Man, this kid is more zombie than I thought_.' Axel grumbled to himself, before saying, "Alright, let's get goin'. Just stick close to me." before holding up a hand and summoned a portal to darkness, before stepping in, making sure that Roxas was following him to head over towards the Castle that Never Was._

_Once Axel reported to Xemnas, the redhead sadly agreed to stick close to Roxas when his welcome into Organization XIII is made._

_Axel could hear Xemnas' boring introduction, but just waited for the cue, and he could already picture Demyx falling asleep in his chair inside the throne room._

_"Good tidings, friends. Today is a momentous day." Xemnas announced, causing Axel to roll his eyes, thinking, '_Just get on with it_.'_

_"I am pleased to announce that a new comrade has been chosen to wear the coat." Xemnas says._

_Finally, on cue, the doors opened, and Axel gave Roxas a gentle push on the back to get the young Nobody to walk, which he did, and the taller Nobody followed to keep an eye on him. Both of them stepped into the middle of the centre, Axel never keeping his eyes off Roxas._

_"Let us all welcome one of the Keyblade's chosen; Number XIII-Roxas." Xemnas says, smirking at the clueless Nobody._

_This was the day that Axel's life changed forever._

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><p>Shutting his eyes tightly to drive out the memory, Axel knew that he had to get Sora and his friends to Kairi and fast. The past can wait. Normally, Axel would've used the corridor of darkness to get the group into the castle quicker, but since Sora, Donald, and Goofy had no coats and Mickey had long discarded his own in Hollow Bastion, the only way to get to the castle now was going through the empty streets of the World That Never Was.<p>

The five of them gaze up at the large fortress floating in the sky where Kingdom Hearts is shining behind it.

"That's the Castle of the Organization." Axel explained, "Kairi should be in the dungeon there."

"So we just go in, right?" Sora asked.

"Then we better find a way to get to that castle!" Mickey declared.

Axel then said, "Gotta be careful, though. There's no telling what they'd do. Last I checked, apart from me, Xemnas, Saix, Xigbar and Luxord are the remaining members left. I'll show you guys the way."

"Lead the way, Axel!" Sora nodded.

Nodding himself, Axel lead the group to his former home and hopefully towards Kairi and to stop Xemnas once and for all. Though Axel didn't know what would become of himself once it's all over. Would he just disappear as well like the others?

Either way, maybe it's for the best.

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><p><em>It's been a week since Roxas has joined the Organization, and to Axel's dismay, on the first day, he was assigned to look after Roxas until the boy gets put onto a mission. Through complaining, the redhead just got used to it and today, a meeting was being formed. Blegh, how Axel hated meetings. So, the first thing he did was to find the younger Nobody who was no doubt sleeping in his room.<em>

_Sadly, the Dusks, who were assigned to look after him, were playing tricks on the kid, and plugged the boy's nose with a peg. Axel caught them just in time, shouting, "Hey! Whadd'ya think you're doing!?" causing the dusks to disappear._

_Sighing, Axel took away the peg to allow Roxas to breathe while grumbling, "Damn, those Dusks. Have to go and pick on the new guy." before telling Roxas that it was time to get up, and as usual, the kid was still in his zombie mode, so, Axel had to get the kid to follow him._

_"So, you got my name memorized yet?" Axel asked, "Axel...A-X-E-L."_

_And again, Roxas reply was, "Ax...cess."_

_"..el!" Axel corrected, to which Roxas repeated, "...el."_

_Both were continuing to walk, that they didn't notice Vexen who apparently wanted to greet Roxas, but he and Axel just walked passed the scientest, not even taking knowlage of the man who was offended._

_"YOU DON'T WALK PASSED YOUR SUPERIORS!" Vexen shouted, causing both Axel and Roxas to pause and look at him._

_Finally knowing, Axel just dryly replied, "Oh, hey Vexen. Haven't seen you in a while. Thought you were dead." before turning away._

_Unfortunately, his day was about to get worse, when four other members, Xigbar, Luxord, Xaldin and Marluxia walked passed._

_"You know, Axel seemed to be the type to look after others." Xigbar admitted with a smirk._

_"Certainly." agreed Xaldin._

_"Indeed." added Luxord._

_"I agree." Marluxia concluded, while holding a rose to his nose._

_Axel glared at them, stating, "I just gotten used to it, you guys." before finally leading Roxas into the round room, telling Demyx to shut up after the latter called him 'Babysitter'. The redhead then settled Roxas down onto the thirteenth throne, telling him to sit still and not fall, ignoring what Zexion and Lexeus were talking about._

_Finally, exhausted, Axel muttered, "Phew." in relief while sitting on his own chair, but as he did, a loud, "_**PFFFT**_!" was made and he nearly jumped out of his skin, before feeling something unusual about his seat. Shifting, he pulled out a woppy cosin, and glared at it, before demanding, "What is this!?"_

_At this, Demyx and Larxene laughed hysterically, causing Axel to glare at both of them, angered at this stupid joke while both of them, one afraid of the other, were still laughing their heads off._

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><p>Axel blinked as they arrived in the middle of the street. '<em>Where'd that memory come from?<em>' he thought to himself. He didn't remember any meeting like that on Roxas' first week months ago, and it was strange yet, familiar. Why, though? What happened on that day?

Suddenly the group stopped, and while Sora sensed something strange and familiar, Axel shifted his eyes, before they widened in shock as he sensed incoming attackers. It started raining and thunder formed, lightning flashing in the sky. Sensing unwanted company, Axel immediately summoned his Chakrams and threw them towards two ninja Nobodies which appeared out of nowhere to block Donald and Goofy who were surprised, and the nobodies were quickly destroyed, getting Sora's attention.

"How did-?" but Sora never got the chance to finish, as everything around him and Axel becomes hazy, causing both of them to turn around as a corridor of darkness appeared, and a figure, about Sora's height in an Organization coat, appeared. Axel's eyes widened in shock, as the figure summoned a familiar weapon.

"It can't be!" He gasped just as Sora exclaimed, "A Keyblade!?"

The figure ran towards Sora who prepared himself, but Axel stood in front of the Keyblade wielder, and blocked the figure's attack, as a second Keyblade appeared. Axel was struggling in keeping the figure away from Sora.

"I knew it..." he grunted, "Roxas-! What are you doing here!?"

"Roxas?" Sora asked, shocked at what he was hearing, before glancing back at the figure who apparently is Roxas but has his hood up. "Who are you?" the teen asked.

"Someone from the dark." Roxas replied to Sora's question but ignored Axel who pushed him back, and demanded, "What's gotten into you!?"

Roxas glared at his former friend and replied, "You betrayed me, and Sora's the reason why I can't exist. I knew that no one would miss me."

Shocked at his friend's words, Axel shook his head, yelling, "You still haven't gotten it into your skull!? Look, I'm sorry for what I did, but I didn't have a choice! If I did, I'd chosen you over the friggin' Organization anyday!"

"Sorry? We don't have hearts to be 'Sorry'." Roxas stated, "You know that."

'_He's the darker side of the Roxas I know, and the Roxas from what DiZ did to him._' Axel realised.

Sora stood from where he was, witnessing the scene going on, before glaring at Roxas and said, "So you're not Riku!"

"Riku?" Roxas snorted, "I defeated a Riku once."

"You what!?" Sora demanded, summoning his Kingdom Key-Keyblade. Axel was struggling in holding in his anger and sorrow and the forming guilt for what has happened.

Eventually, he glared at Sora and said, "Stay out of this!" before glancing back at Roxas, knowing that once again, he has no choice but to get into a fighting stance. Axel just hoped that he'd be able to knock some sense into the youngest Nobody. Roxas seemed to get the picture, and runs towards Axel who immediately blocked more attacks, the two of them leaping in the air and clashing against each other, just like when Axel last confronted his friend in the fake Twilight Town. Axel landed on the ground, before rolling out of the way from Roxas air-strike attack, but couldn't dodge the next attack as he was knocked and slid towards the wall of a building.

Crying out in pain, Axel dropped his weapons, and sat on the ground, almost limp and panting. He was still exhausted from his attempted suicide attack, one that should've claimed his life but instead was saved. Maybe the reason why Roxas saved him was because he wanted...revenge. Maybe Roxas was so angry at him and wanted to kill him himself.

At this point, Roxas was about to give out a finishing blow when Sora snuck up behind him and striked him from behind, his Nobody frozen in place, and Axel saw what happened and gasped. '_Roxas!_' he thought in despair.

Roxas, stunned, dropped his keyblades which both disappeared, and Axel immediately stood up before falling on his knees, but had enough time to catch his friend and hold him in his arms, for the first time in their lives, embracing, just as Roxas' hood fell off. Axel couldn't believe at first that this was real, but then he decided that he didn't care. Sora stood, shocked at this sight.

"Axel..." Roxas began, exhausted. "...Why did you...?"

"I don't know, man." Axel admitted. "I just don't know..." he closed his eyes and held the blonde-haired boy closer. "I guess...I just wanted things the way they were. I wanted...I wanted to see you again."

Roxas was silent for a few moments, before asking, "Did you...really miss me?"

The red-haired man smiled in sadness, and said, "I'm no good in this mushy stuff, but yeah...I missed you a lot. Out of all of the Oraganization members...You're the only one I liked. It thanks to you...I could feel my emotions again, even without a heart. Strange, isn't it?"

"Sora did the same to you, though." Roxas reminded.

"So you heard, huh?" Axel asked, then sighed and replied, "It doesn't matter. You're different, and made me happy. That's all that matters. You're my best friend, Rox'."

Both of them and Sora were silent, though the Keyblade wielder felt his chest tighten at this, and tears forming in his eyes. Despite Axel and Roxas being Nobodies, Sora knew what it was like to miss best friends, and he was still in search for Riku and wanted to rescue Kairi. These two, they reminded him of the days when Sora himself and Riku would hang out together before Xehanort screwed things up with all the worlds and everyone.

"...I have to go back." Roxas whispered, to which Axel felt like he wanted to really cry now. "Sora can't keep up by himself."

Axel nodded, knowing that this would be the last time he would ever see his friend again. "Yeah, I guess not. Too bad we couldn't leave off with ice cream." which made Roxas chuckle, finally embracing Axel in return.

"Sorry I screwed up." Axel muttered.

"I'm sorry too." Roxas replied. "See you later, Axel."

Axel smiled, despite something wet trickling down from his eyes, as he nodded, "See ya later, pal."

As Roxas began to fade away, to Sora's shock, the blonde-haired nobody glanced at him with a smile, saying, "You make a good other, Sora." before disappearing completely, back inside the Keyblade wielder who blinked in surprise, while Axel arms now closed around himself in empty air, half-overcome with saddness and lowered his head, his tears-his actual tears, falling free and onto the ground.

Realising that he was actually crying, Axel blinked, then wiped his face with his sleeve to calm down. He hasn't cried in years, and to think that he'd actually cry without a heart, it was a shock yet a relief to him. Standing up, Axel looked at Sora who felt sorry for him, while thinking about what Roxas just told him.

"Axel..." Sora trailled off while the rain finally stopped and it seemed that everything returned to normal for now.

"I'm fine." Axel said, making up an excuse, "It's only rain. I wasn't crying or anything; don't have a heart to do so."

But Axel was only fooling himself.

* * *

><p><strong>My tears nearly fell when I wrote the moment of Roxas and Axel. Those two are so close to each other. Look out for more chapters!<strong>


	3. Home Nothing Home

**Second Chance.**

**Note: I might not write for a while because my sister is in hospital and I want to be aware of what's going on without getting too distracted. So, here's chapter 3.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>CH3: Home Nothing Home.<strong>_

Sora didn't look convinced as he studied Axel's face, and, while they were a bit wet from the rain, the spiky-haired Keyblade wielder didn't think that it was rain, and that the way Axel reacted when Roxas disappeared, made Sora wonder if Nobodies did have hearts after all.

"_Oh, we do too have hearts! Don't be mad!_"

"_You shouldn't judge anyone by appearence._"

"_Now that was plain rude._"

Flash-backs spun backwards of when Sora and his friends confronted Demyx and how such a whimp the nobody was before he strange Nobody was weird, not to mention how even he couldn't stand up against Hades, let alone confront him. Sora remembered when he and his friends were about to confront him in the Underworld when Demyx just instead ran past him.

"_Run! Run away!_" Demyx had cried out before disappearing, which was utterly confusing to Sora back then.

But before either of them could say anything else, Donald and Goofy approached, puzzled and confused on what just happened. Apperantely, they didn't see Roxas or what just happened.

"Are you okay?" Donald asked.

Axel shrugged, guessing that the question was directed to Sora who asked, "What happened?"

"Gawrsh, I dunno." Goofy shrugged, "You and Axel just disappeared, then me and Donald had to fight some Nobodies."

'_We just disappeared?_' Axel thought, finding this strange.

Sora asked Axel's unasked questioned, "Didn't you see the other guy in the black coat? He said...that he defeated Riku, and, we're pretty sure it was Roxas."

"Roxas?" Donald asked.

"Yeah." Axel nodded before Sora did. "It was definately him. He's gone now, though." the redhead said.

"But how?" Donald asked.

"Yeah, nobody can defeat Riku." Goofy added. He and Donald only rechieved Axel's skeptical look which silently asked, '_Seriously?_' to which they and Sora were reminded about what happened and even Axel knew about Riku.

Sora then replied, "Even so, is Riku okay?"

"Don't worry," Axel assured, "Just because someone lost to a fight doesn't mean that they would go down so easily. Even I would know that Riku's tough, like I'm tough too."

Even though Sora was still worried about his best friend, has to admit that Axel was right; Riku is tough and he'll be alright.

After this, the group continued on and once again met up with Mickey and the five of them finally approached the castle. Unfortunately, it was dead end and the fortress was floating above on the other side, much to their dismay, and even Axel smacked himself in the face and groaned loudly.

"Drat, I forgot there was no bridge." Axel grumbled.

"Isn't there any other way to get to the castle?" Mickey asked.

The red-haired Nobody sighed, crossed his arms and then began to pace and think, while Sora and the others glanced at each other, then tried to think of a way themselves. All five of them thought of any possible ways of getting through, and Axel already pointed out that he didn't want to risk in making too many portals since if Sora and his friends entered too many in one day, then it's serious trouble with their hearts and bodies, especially since they didn't have any coats to protect themselves.

They kept thinking hard until all of the sudden, light flashed and shined through one of the windows of the castle, causing Sora and the others to stop and gaze at it while shielding their eyes so that they wouldn't get blind. Suddenly, the Kingdom Key-Keyblade appeared in front of Sora who gently took it, and then he just had an idea. Aiming the Keyblade at the castle, a beam shoots out, and, surprisingly, a glass-like bridge appeared, connecting it both to the castle and on the edge the others were on.

Axel hated to admit it, but he was impressed. Then he remembered the window and said, "That window is where the dungeon is." though he had no idea what caused the warm light. Maybe it was from Kairi? He didn't think that Naminé was there, though something inside him was saying that the white-haired female nobody was around, and he hoped that she was safe. The last thing he wanted was another young girl in trouble, having to rescue two damsels in distress.

"Kairi...We're on our way." Sora whispered.

* * *

><p>Naminé was exhausted after summoning up a corridor of darkness which she learned from both Riku and Axel, and now, she was leading Kairi and Pluto down as fast as they could towards an exit to get away and find Sora, the two girls hand and hand, though Kairi had no idea that she was holding hands with her other half-her nobody.<p>

Suddenly, Kairi noticed that Naminé's body was shaking and fuzzing slightly before she returned to normal, but both of them and Pluto stopped just as huge Beserker Nobodies blocked their only exit, and Saix appeared from the corridor of darkness, emotionless as usual.

"Naminé, there you are." Saix says to the blonde Nobody who just glared at him.

Kairi glanced at the other girl, repeating Naminé's name in slight confusion.

Saix then turned his attention to Kairi and says, "Kairi. I'm afraid leaving is not an option." before holding out his hand and offered, "I'll take you to see Sora." but the Princess of Heart got into defence, and the blue-haired nobody lowered his hand, inquiring, "You don't want that?"

"I do, more than anything." Kairi replied, then gets into a defence and fighting stance, adding, "But not with you around!" finding herself not afraid anymore. She was tired of being the damsel in distress, tired of being scared, tired of being weak, and tired of being helpless. She wanted to help and wanted to fight, and she felt it was now her turn to protect Sora.

Namine, seeing her original half's determination, just like when she herself was determinded to keep Sora safe, realised that they were the same person, having the same determination. So, the blonde-haired nobody also got into a fighting stance, also tired of being a helpless girl. She would not be used as a tool ever again, not if she and Kairi had anything to do with it.

Saix just stood there, muttering, "If I had a heart, this would be where I die of laughter." just about to order his Nobodies to seize the two girls, when suddenly, the Beserkers were struck down and disappeared, caused by another figure in a black coat, his hood up, but with a Keyblade in hand. Saix noticed this and realised who this man was.

"You." he adressed to the imposter, "Didn't Roxas take care of you?"

Relived, Namine said to the imposter, "You can take if from here, Riku."

"Riku!?" Kairi whispered in shock, before turning to the cloaked hooded man who seems to be Riku. At the sight of the Keyblade was a similiar design to Riku's soul-eater sword Maleficent gave him a year ago, the Princess realised that it was Riku after all, while not noticing that Namine disappeared with a sad smile as the blonde glanced at her other self.

Riku, not revealing his face just yet, de-summoned his own Keyblade, and mustered up and fired a Dark firaga are Saix who blocked the attack with his arms, but was caught off-guard when the former dashed at him, grabbing him roughly and pushed him against the wall. But the blue-haired Nobody had other ideas, as he summoned a portal of darkness behind him and seeped through with a smirk, causing Riku to let go of him.

He was about to follow Saix when Kairi ran up to him and cried out, "Wait!" causing Riku to pause at his friend's voice. Pluto then barked and approached him happily, to which Riku stepped back a little, stunned that the dog recongised him, even in the current state he was in. Pluto didn't back away and still looked happily at him.

Kairi then got up close, relief filled her heart. "Riku...you're really here." she said as she removed the hood, only to reveal another familiar voice who looked away. Despite the surprise, and not sure how it happened, Kairi just nodded. Just because the man had the face of the evil Ansem, didn't mean that it was Ansem. Ansem didn't have the look this man had now-the look of shame. And he didn't have a Keyblade that resembled to Riku's soul-eater either, and he definately wouldn't come to her or Sora's rescue.

* * *

><p>Axel lead Sora and the others into the entrance of the castle, the redhead looking around carefully. He sighed and said, "At least there aren't any of those security cameras or whatever around here. But it's still pretty much uncomfortable to live in now."<p>

To his dismay, Sora (unknowingly) decided to be stupid and yelled out, "Kairi! Where are you!?" just as Axel slapped a hand over the boy's mouth.

Even Mickey went up to Sora and shushed him, whispering, "Remember where we are! This is their stronghold!" before running out to find Ansem the Wise, the real Ansem.

"Wait! Your Majesty!" Donald called out, but Mickey was already too far ahead of the group.

"Where's he goin'?" Axel asked as he realised Sora, only for both of them, Donald and Goofy sense incoming Nobodies and heartleses and braced themselves for a fight.

Goofy then said, "Be careful. I think we got company." causing Axel to roll his eyes, and the redhead muttered in sarcasm, "You think?" before stating, "It's mainly because Sora here had to go and open up his big mouth." to which Donald, who still didn't trust him, had to agree with a nod.

This made Sora sheepish at this, and he mumbled, "Oh, sorry."

Axel sighed and said, "Nah, nevermind. Gotta fight our way in anyway, though I was kinda hoping that we wouldn't." as he summoned his Chakrams. Sora summoned his Keyblade, Donald summoned his staff, and Goofy summoned his shield, all four of them racing in as quickly as they could, slashing against both several heartless and non-human-form-nobodies.

Eventually they arrived at the Crooked Ascension, where Axel told them to be extra careful.

"Say, Axel?" Goofy spoke up.

"Hm?" Axel turned to glance at the humanriod dog who asked, "I was just wonderin'. How come you and the other Organization fellas look and act like human?" to which gave Sora and Donald a pause and glanced up at the red-head who was also surprised at the question.

Now that it was mentioned, even Axel didn't know. So he shrugged and replied, "Dunno. Xemnas told us that those with even the strongest heart and will can keep their human forms even after turning both a heartless and a nobody. See, a person who lost their heart end up turning into a heartless as you guys know, while their souls and bodies form into nobodies. So, you can guess that my heart was powerful enough to let me keep my human-self instead of turning into a dusk."

This only confused Sora, Donald and Goofy, and Axel sighed. '_Geez, they're really slow_.' Then he tried again, "Translation; let's say that Sora's heart is strong and powerful, that he turns into a heartless, right? If said heart is strong enough even though it's lost in the darkness, a nobody is created. _And_, if the heart is extra powerful, stronger than those who end up creating the dusks, a special nobody is made, but take up the human form of their original selves, except with a couple of differences. Got it memorized?"

"So, you mean to say that even your heart was powerful before you lost it? It's the same with the other Organizatino members, right?" Sora sumised.

"Bingo!" Axel replied, before admitting, "Though, back when I was human, I never knew that my heart was special like yours or Kairi's. Always thought I was just a normal person like everyone else. Lost my heart when I was your age, actually-around ten years ago."

"What!?" Donald exclaimed.

Axel nodded, "Yeah, though I don't remember how that happened. I still haven't recovered some of my memories, and without a heart to remember the important part of my childhood, it's kinda hard too."

That's when Sora realised the entire thing. "Organization XIII were creating Kingdom Hearts to get hearts of their own-to become human again." he said in shock.

"That was the idea." Axel approved with a guilty smile, "Though, I guess there's a downside to that. Xemnas might know something more than the rest of us are bargained for. Like I said, Roxas was the only one I liked."

"That kinda sounds like when Maleficent didn't know that she was bein' tricked by Xehanort's heartless." Goofy thought, remembering when Xehanort's heartless possessed Riku's body to stab Maleficent into the chest before she was defeated and, well, nobody knows how she revived herself earlier this year.

At this, Axel furrowed his eyebrows, "Xehanort?" he asked, thinking deeply, "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He's the original of both Xemnas and his Heartless." Sora explained, sensing Axel's confusion, "Xemnas is Xehanort's nobody."

Axel gasped at this, before saying, "I thought it was Ansem who was the original of Xemnas!" then realised what he said, and stated, "Unless..." realization dawned upon and he knew now on what was happening.

"C'mon! Let's get goin'!" Axel declared, "First we find Kairi, and then handle Xemnas. I gotta get answers from him."

"You mean..." Sora realised, "Xemnas lied to you?"

"I knew that he was up to something, but I didn't think that he lied to most of us." Axel shrugged, "No wonder Roxas left." though he knew better than that, but right now, Roxas' connection with Sora wasn't important.

* * *

><p>The group entered the Twilight's View to head over to the Hall of Empty Melodies, which Axel knew was the entrance towards the dungeon to find Kairi. Unfortunately, a certain blue-haired emotionless nobody appeared on the very elaborate high ledge, spying on them.<p>

"Sora, you've done well." Saix's voice caused Sora and the others to stop before glancing up and noticed the blue-haired nobody, to which even Axel glared at. Despite that the redhead now understood half of the truth, he knew that the Isa he knew when he was Lea is long gone.

Saix then turned his attention to Axel, and added, "As for you, traitor. You knew better than to run off to find the other traitor."

"Yeah, yeah." Axel grumbled, "Tell me something that I don't know. Roxas left for a good reason, and that reason is what made me leave too, and I'd say it's the best decision I made in years. And if I remember correctly, wasn't I ordered to find Roxas and either bring him back or destroy him?"

"And yet, you failed." Saix reminded.

Axel grunted. This guy really got on his nerves. "And I seriously didn't want to get turned into a dusk. But enough of that. I believe Sora wanted to find his girlfriend."

That last sentence made Sora blush, before shaking his head and demand at Saix, "Where's Kairi!?"

"Who knows?" Saix replied, "I expect she's catching up with her friend from the darkness."

Axel furrowed his brows in supicion, while Sora asked in anger, "What do you mean!?"

Saix just simply said, "She doesn't need you anymore."

"I'm supposed to believe that?" Sora challenged, as Axel stated, "You do realise that the kid's not gonna fall for your lies, Saix. Besides, Kairi only has two friends, and the other is Riku."

"Well, he doesn't have to." Saix replied to Axel's comment. "But he can believe this. Organization XIII has no further use for either of you." before telling Sora to gaze at the heart-shaped moon.

"Our Kingdom Hearts." Saix continued, "Thanks to you, we've collected countless hearts...Can you hear their euphoria?"

Axel knew what was going to happen, and cried out, "Don't! Kingdom Hearts isn't the answer!"

"Oh? And since when did you learn this...Lea?" Saix questioned, mocking calling Axel by his original name, causing the redhead to flinch and trying not to yell out in anger.

"Lea?" Sora repeated, before glancing at Axel and asked, "Why did he call you '_Lea_'?"

Axel sighed, trying to control himself. He really didn't want to reveal his past, but now it was mentioned, he hestiatedly answered, "It...it was my old name before I lost my heart. Xemnas rearranged everyone's names with an '_X_' after we were all born as nobodies."

Now that he mentioned it, Sora and the others did notice that the members of Organization XIII all seemed to have X's in their names. Heck, even Xehanort's name starts with an X. Was there a connection?

"Enough of that. I believe this will keep you and your new friends occupied." Saix says, and with a snap of his fingers, several heartless began to appear, surrounding and trapping Sora, Axel, Donald and Goofy who all backed up until their backs touched, knowing that they were in serious trouble. Axel alread summoned his Chakrams, and Donald and Goofy both summoned their weapons, but Sora knew that if he fought, more hearts will end up within the Organization's Kingdom Hearts.

To add to everything else, on another ledge, Maleficent and Pete arrived, and only Saix noticed.

"Well, well. Will the intrusions never end?" Saix chuckled as he teleported away from the oppesite side.

Maleficent in the meantime marveled the way the stronghold is and says, "Why, Pete...this castle is perfect. Perhaps we should...acquire it."

On the other hand, Pete looked nervous. "Well, the setup is...kinda nice, I guess, but...what about all the Heartless?" he asked before stating out his worries, "This in-between world-it's way too close to the darkness! They ain't gonna listen to us here!" shaking his head.

But the evil witch smiled, and replied, "Once again, you underestimate me."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Mickey was running through the higher levels of the castle, knocking out both Heartless and Nobodies that tried to attack him. He knew that he had to find Ansem the Wise and fast, and hoped that Sora, Donald, Goofy and Axel found Kairi already. As he made it up the last ramp, he saw a familiar figure, lying on the ground, trapped and buried underneath nobodies.<p>

Gasping in horror, Mickey quickly rushed over to save the man who he recongised as DiZ and takes out the Nobodies. Once the enemies were gone for now, Mickey noticed an odd looking device, but decided to worry about that later. He helped DiZ up, and to his surprise and confusion, the man in red robes hugged him, before standing up, and, for the first time since meeting him back in Castle Oblivion a year ago, DiZ removed his long red sash that covered his face, revealling himself as a man in his mid fifties, short blonde and smooth hair with matching small beard, orange eyes and an expression that made Mickey realise he already found the man he tried to find for a long time.

"It's been too long, my friend." said DiZ who is now known as none other than Ansem-the real Ansem.

And Mickey wasn't impressed, despite being younger. "Ansem the Wise." he stated, before asking, "Why didn't you come to me before things got so bad?" placing his hands on his hips. He couldn't believe that Ansem has disguised himself as DiZ for the entire time and Mickey himself didn't even realise it.

"Xemnas, the Organization's Superior, is the Nobody of Xehanort, my foremost apprentice. The burden was mine to bear." Ansem replied.

"Is that it?" Mickey asked, as he watched Ansem approach the railing-wall.

The blonde-haired man then explained, "I won't deny there was more. I was...obsessed with thoughts of revenge. My apprentices stole everything precious to me-my research, and my pride."

Hearing this made Mickey realise how much his old friend wanted Xehanort to pay for everything that's happened, especially in Radiant Garden. Still, he approached his human friend and stated, "I can't help you with revenge."

Mickey knew that, and he knew that some others would know that as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry to cut this short, but I didn't want to make this chapter long. In the meantime, I have to wait for the results on how the surgery went with my sister. I pray that she'll be alright-I'm not ready for her to die yet! She's my only sister.<strong>

**Anyway, keep up those wonderful reviews and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


	4. Truth and reunion

**Second Chance.**

**Note: Good news! My sister survive surgery and is doing pretty well. She managed to eat food, and while using a walking stick to support her, she can even move to her own bed, which is great! She'll be sore for a couple of weeks and won't be able to go to work for a week, but other than that, she's making a good recovery.**

**Stress over...thank goodness. Anyway, welcome to chapter 4, and please enjoy. I don't own Kingdom Hearts-it belongs to Disney and Square Enix.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>CH4: Truth and reunion.<strong>_

"It's been too long, my friend." said DiZ who is now known as none other than Ansem-the real Ansem.

And Mickey wasn't impressed, despite being younger. "Ansem the Wise." he stated, before asking, "Why didn't you come to me before things got so bad?" placing his hands on his hips. He couldn't believe that Ansem has disguised himself as DiZ for the entire time and Mickey himself didn't even realise it.

"Xemnas, the Organization's Superior, is the Nobody of Xehanort, my foremost apprentice. The burden was mine to bear." Ansem replied.

"Is that it?" Mickey asked, as he watched Ansem approach the railing-wall.

The blonde-haired man then explained, "I won't deny there was more. I was...obsessed with thoughts of revenge. My apprentices stole everything precious to me-my research, and my pride."

Hearing this made Mickey realise how much his old friend wanted Xehanort to pay for everything that's happened, especially in Radiant Garden. Still, he approached his human friend and stated, "I can't help you with revenge."

"I know." Ansem sighed, "Riku's told me a thousand times."

Mickey was surprised to hear that Riku was alright and around. He glanced around to see his friend, before turning back to his older friend and asked, "Where is he?"

"He must be with his friends by now." Ansem replied, before explaining, "Riku was a great help to me. I found him wandering the darkness, after you and he lost track of each other."

"Gosh," Mickey shrugged a little, "We didn't lose each other exactly. Riku left...well, 'cause Xehanort's Heartless was still inside his heart, troubling him. And he sure

must've been suffering." he sighed, knowing how much poor Riku suffered no thanks to Xehanort's heartless. He then added in a tone of confusion, "But what I don't understand is why he looks like that now, when he's still Riku at heart."

Ansem was silent as he listened to what Mickey was saying, and felt pain within his chest. Eventually, he answered, "I am to blame. When I met Riku the first time he still had the appearance of a boy. Probably because he had such a strong heart. I asked him to find a young man named Roxas from Organization XIII, and bring him to me."

Mickey was a bit surprised to hear this; He remembered that Roxas was also Axel's best friend within the Organization after the red-head explained what happened.

"When I told him it would help Sora awaken from his slumber, Riku left without a word." Ansem continued, "He fought Roxas. And I can only surmise Riku lost that fight. Riku must have realized then: to fight in the realm of darkness, he would have to immerse himself in that same darkness. And when he did...you saw what became of him. When Riku brought Roxas back to me, he was introducing himself...as Ansem. If that was what it took to awaken his friend, he was ready to live in darkness."

"Riku was the victum of my revenge." Ansem added, as Mickey got up closer to him. "Oh, how my heart ached." the blonde-haired man sighed, "I could only laugh to hide my shame."

It made sense now to Mickey, because he replied, "I guess it musta been after that when I saw Riku again. He said he wanted to help Sora...but he made me promise- Promise that Sora wouldn't ever find out about what happened to him while he was out in the darkness."

He paused, and the awkwardly added, "And gee, there's this fella named Axel who was Roxas' close friend."

"Axel?" Ansem asked, a bit surprised. "That young man from the Organization?" as he remembered how Axel was ordered to bring Roxas back, and how he found it ridiculous that the two nobodies were 'friends' as he witnessed everything from the data.

"Yup, and on our way here, he saved Sora, Donald and Goofy from a bunch of nobodies." Mickey explained, "I know this sounds silly, but I think Axel wants to atone for what he did, and, well, he wanted to see Roxas again. He explained to us that Roxas was the only one Axel liked and made him feel like he had a heart again. Even Axel doesn't understand how or why."

So Axel knows that he shouldn't feel emotions or be close to anyone, yet he does. Ansem was now beginning to think that perhaps even he was wrong about the nobodies and that he was too far harsh on all of them, when it was Xemnas-no, Xehanort who is responsible for the entire mess, and because Sora returned human form, Roxas gained memories of his own, personality of his own, and gained a new friend within Axel who was unknowingly becoming connected with him. Perhaps the young redhead was mysteriously devoloping a heart of his own?

Seeing how there was still a lot of work to do, Ansem looked at Mickey, and says, "My friend, the time has come. I must make amends to these young people." before he picked up his device, and he and Mickey walked towards inside another passage.

* * *

><p>Axel threw his chakrams at the heartless, shouting, "Get lost!" but to his frustration, more and more kept on coming. He skillfully caught his weapons, before falling to his left knee, panting, out of breath. He was still weak from his attempted suicide attack, one that shoud've caused him to die, and he would've been erased if Sora's curaga hadn't saved him. Donald and Goofy were also struggling, and Sora tried using magic with his own hands and without using his Keyblade to avoid giving Xemnas more hearts for his Kingdom Hearts.<p>

Suddenly, a familiar katar takes aim and shoots. The shard lands on the battleground near Axel and Sora, who both looked up to see more shards obliterate the Heartless. Axel knew who the katar belongs to.

"Came to get rid of us, Xigbar?" Axel mocked as he stood up with a bit of difficulty, glaring up at the elaborate ledge where he knew that Xigbar would most likely appear.

It was confirmed as Xigbar appeared on the ledge, chuckling. "What'd you expect, Flamsilocks?" he joked.

"_Flamsilocks_?" Donald asked, looking at Axel who told Xigbar to shut up and said, "I hate it when you call me that."

Xigbar ignored Axel and turned his attention to Sora, saying, "Looks like you haven't been a good boy." before calling out, "Sora! Roxas!"

"NO!" Axel screamed in horror, while Sora asked in confusion, "Roxas?" before turning to Donald and asked, "Hey, did he just call me Roxas?" and the white duck nodded, also confused.

"You've really put Organization XIII in a pickle." Xigbar said, Axel knowing that the former is trying to speak to Roxas through Sora. "I guess that must be why the Keyblade chose you. But MAN, did it pick a dud this time. You don't look like you're half the hero the others were."

'_Others?_' Axel thought. '_How does he knew there are others? Did he meet them before?_' So many questions filled up his mind, and then Axel remembered that Xigbar is the second member of the Organization. His brows furrowed in realisation.

"Geez, do you ever stop talking about the Keyblade?" Axel grunted, "You're almost half as bad as Xemnas, and Demyx called me a loudmouth? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you and Xemnas are hiding something other than using Kingdom Hearts to get our hearts back."

Xigbar snorted, "Hiding? As if! You and Roxas had discovered way too much, and now, traitors, your time is up!"

Just as he was about to attack the group, suddenly, something comes whirling at him, and he ducked just in time to avoid losing his head, crying out in fright at the close call, and the weapon landed. Then everyone looked, to their surprise, it was a flower-type Keyblade. Turning to see who threw it, everyone was in even more surprise as Kairi, on another ledge with the transformed Riku, held out her hand to try and get it to rematerialize. She was concentrating hard, and she knew that if Sora and Riku could do it, she can too. Riku gave her the keyblade, and Kairi was surprised that it didn't disappear on her, thus, she too was chosen to be a Keyblade wielder now, and not just a Princess of Heart.

"What the!?" Xigbar gasped, "How did this happen!?"

Fortunately, the keyblade vanished and it reappeared in Kairi's hand. "I did it!" she cried out happily.

"Well done." Riku praised with a smile.

"Since when did _she_ get a Keyblade?" Axel asked, stunned at this.

"Kairi!?" Sora called out, shocked.

Both of them were even more shocked to see another familiar man with her, and while Sora thought Xehanort's Heartless has returned, Axel had a feeling that it was actually someone else. But neither got the chance to figure this out, because Xigbar, in irritation, fired more shards towards Kairi. However, Riku stood in front of her and blocked all attacks, much to her horror and the others' shock. Seeing this made Axel turn to Xigbar, while saying to the others, "Get over to Kairi! I'll handle this one-eyed weirdo!"

Before anyone knew it, Axel teleported himself up towards the ledge, his chakrams in his hands, glaring at the older nobody who just chuckled.

"Came to disappear, huh?" Xigbar mocked, his own weapons in hand.

"Not yet." Axel replied, "When I win, I want answers."

The older Nobody laughed again, taking arm and fired several of them, but Axel held up his Chakrams and blocked every single of them with a bit of struggle, before teleporting and vanishing out of Xigbar's sight, causing the one-eye-patched nobody to try and glance around, trying to sense Axel's movement, but because Axel still wore his coat, it made things impossible. Xigbar then dodged out of the way just in time as Axel reappeared and slashed, but missed.

The redhead Nobody then threw his weapons at him, and this time Xigbar used his weapons to knock them back, and Axel caught the chakrams before dodging more mutiple shards to avoid getting hit. Xigbar then disappeared and Axel looked around for him.

"I can see you!" Xigbar mocked, causing Axel to look up and saw him on a higher ledge, and the second Organization member took aim and fired. Axel's eyes widened, and he quickly teleported out of the way just in time, before he had an idea and then whistled at Xigbar from below before teleporting again. This seemed to work because Xigbar telelported to where he heard the sound, only to find an empty area.

"No you don't!" Axel mocked back as he teleported behind Xigbar and with both of his Chakrams, punch-stabbed the older nobody right into the body, the weapons sticking out of Xigbar's body, while Xigbar stood, shocked and horrified as he realized that he has been tricked.

Axel chuckled, and then said, "You should know better than to unexpect this kind of skill from a trained assassin." before pulling his chakrams out of Xigbar's body, causing the latter to fall to his knees, and drop his katar to the floor. He then walked around the now dying Xigbar, frowning before standing in front of him.

"Alright, interrgotion time." Axel said in a firm tone. "You've known Xemnas longer than I have. His oldself's name wasn't Ansem, right? His real name is Xehanort, isn't it?"

Panting, Xigbar glared up at Axel, and said, "How'd you figure that out?"

"Sora and his friends know about Xehanort's heartless who was supposed to be 'Ansem', the same one who is the half of Xemnas or whatever." Axel answered, "You're the second guy to join in the Organization, so tell me." he then demanded, "Who the thell is Xehanort? Why did Xemnas lie to the rest of the Organization? What does Kingdom Hearts really mean? Why weren't we getting our hearts back?"

Instead of answering, Xigbar smirked, chuckling, "Wouldn't you like to know..." as he began to fade away. But Axel grabbed him roughly on the collar, shouting, "Don't you go and disappear on me now! Answer my damn question! What was the point of collecting hearts if Xemnas lied to us!?"

"Seeing how you're a traitor, doomed to disappear, maybe I can fill in a few details." Xigbar grunted, "Kingdom Hearts was really meant to prevent us from getting our hearts back. We all were to become one single person in thirteen bodies...Even our minds were doomed to disappear."

"That doesn't make sense." Axel shook his head. "You can't just turn thirteen people into one single person. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, and believe me, this is really starting to become a pain in the butt."

Xigbar just laughed as he is almost vanished. "With Xehanort...anything is possible." and with that, he was gone, and Axel's grip ended up closing in empty air.

The redhead was left troubled in Xigbar's last words. What did he mean by what he said? It didn't make sense. Axel sighed, then he quickly remembered Sora and the others and cursed at himself, before quickly teleporting away to find the others. He knew that they would be near the spot he left them to reunight with Kairi and apparently Riku.

For one thing that Axel learned all day, Kingdom Hearts wasn't the answer of getting his or anybody else's hearts back.

* * *

><p>Axel arrived just in time to aid Sora and the others in helping Kairi who surprisingly, for a Princess of Heart, was a decent fighter in her first battle with her own Keyblade. This reminded the redhaired Nobody on that girls are much, much more than just whimy girls and not just damsels in distress.<p>

Once things had settled down, the others looked at Kairi who was a bit dazed on her first determinded battle.

"Kairi, you were great!" Donald praised.

Hearing a familiar voice, Kairi turned to see that Sora, Donald and Goofy were there, smiling and impressed. Blushing, she giggled while bushfully flipping her hair, as Sora and she approached each other before stopping. Axel smiled, relieved that Kairi was safe.

"You are different, Kairi." Sora admitted, "But I'm just glad you're alright." he didn't want to admit that Kairi had become more beautiful in his eyes. Her new pink short dress suited her perfectly, and her hair was a bit longer and a bit darker, and her face...it become more mature and beautiful. He always had a crush on her, but he was too embarrassed to express his feelings.

"You and Riku never came home, so I came looking for you." Kairi replied.

'_That part being my fault._' Axel thought as he leaned against the wall with his arms folded against his chest, but he didn't say anything. Let these two 'lovebirds' have their moment. Besides, he had a feeling-er, I mean, he figured(there, much better) that Kairi wouldn't forgive him; not yet, anyway.

Sora, feeling a bit guilty, looked away, muttering, "I'm sorry-" only to be caught off-guard when Kairi suddenly ran up to him and the next thing he knew, her arms were around his lower waist, her body leaning onto his, and her head resting on his shoulder. All Sora could do was stare in shock, his hands in the air in a stance of, '_Wha-huh?_' as Kairi was hugging him.

"This is real." Kairi whispered, tears filling up her eyes, as well as her voice cracking, refusing to let go.

Seeing this, Sora felt his heart pump, and he embraces her in return. While Axel smiled at the sight, still remembering of how he held Roxas in his arms, just in a more brotherly kind of way and not the romantic kind of way, Donald and Goofy both smirked, both already knowing how much Sora can be complicated when it comes to girls.

Axel then decided that maybe it was his time to leave. But he still wanted answers from Xemnas. For one thing, he was destined to disappear forever, no longer living. It was his fate. He just stood up and began to walk away, when the others heard him, and when Kairi looked up, she was shocked to see him again, but was even more shocked to see him walk away. She was still angry at him, but at the same time...he had come earlier to try and rescue her.

_As Kairi was in her cell, with a couple of dusks handing her food, all of the sudden, the dusks were wiped out, and from a corridor of darkness, the one person she didn't want to see appeared from a corridor of darkness, the red-spiky hair and the sea-green eyes._

_"Good thing it was the dusks that were watching you." said Axel as he stepped out so that he can rescue Kairi and get her out. "Don't worry, I'll get you out ASAP."_

_Her response was throwing a rice-ball and sushi at Axel's face unexpectedly, making a SPLONG(_or whatever splattered sound effects Disney studios use even to this day_), sound. "BAH!" he yelped, before trying to block Kairi's food-throw, as he became more and more covered in porriage and other wet food._

_"Took you long enough!" Kairi yelled, while Pluto growled at Axel who cried out, "Stop it, you idiot!" at the girl._

_"If you think I'm going to listen to you again, think twice!" She continued until she had no more food left._

_Axel just stood there, covered in food grease, before wiping them off, chuckling sheepishly, "Well, you could say that things aren't looking well at my end."_

Even though Axel was truthful at his word, he had been injured by another man-Luxord, was it?- and the redhead had to escape for recovery. Kairi didn't think that he'd be here with Sora, Donald and Goofy, and now he was leaving?

"Axel, wait!" Kairi called out, causing Axel to pause, but he didn't say anything. "I...I'm glad that you're okay." she said a bit awkwardly.

Axel sighed, before turning to face Kairi and said, "I'm a Nobody, and I messed you guys up. You shouldn't...be glad to see me." he paused, not used to this kind of thing. Eventually, he managed to say, "Kairi...sorry for bringing you into this mess."

"It's okay." Kairi shook her head, "It's because of you that I found my friends." she smiled, "Thank you, Axel."

"Oh man." Axel groaned, facepalming himself. "I don't deserve any of this from you guys." he knew he had to tell them the truth, especially about Roxas. Why did Kairi and Sora have to be too nice towards everyone?

Before anyone else could continue, Sora and the others noticed that 'Ansem' was about to leave, when he called the taller man to wait. Sora then says, "I never thought for a second that I'd ever see YOU again. Just thinking about all the things you did makes me really mad. But..." he paused, before looking at him with a thankful smile, adding, "But you saved Kairi, right? I have to be grateful for that... Thanks."

Riku, understanding that Sora doesn't know that he wasn't 'Ansem', and that he didn't want Sora to know, just continued to walk away, until Kairi ran up to him and pulled him back by the arm, pleading, "Riku! Don't go!" much to Sora, Donald and Goofy's surprises, and even Axel was surprised, though he knew all along that it was Riku. The question is, why did Riku look like Xehanort's heartless now?

"Kairi...what did you say?" Sora asked, confused.

"Riku." Kairi answered.

"I'm no one," answered 'Ansem', "Just a castaway from the darkness."

Axel begged to differ as he approached before pausing just in front of Donald and Goofy, saying, "C'mon, man. I'm the one who isn't anyone. You're the one who exists-not me."

Kairi told Sora to approach, which he did, before she held hers, Sora's and 'Ansem's' hands together, saying, "Here. You'll understand. Close your eyes."

Still puzzled, Sora did close his eyes, just as 'Ansem' turned to look at him. Within his closed vision, Sora could see a familiar silver-haired teen, a year older than him, in an Organization coat, but with aqua eyes, looking at him in the same stance. Opening his eyes again, Sora's heart seemed to stop. Despite the different body, the teen came to realise that 'Ansem' was known other than Riku all along. Sora didn't know how, or why, but now he understood why Mickey was reculant. He knew all along and promised not to reveal the bad news to Sora, but thanks to Kairi, Sora knew half of the truth.

"Riku..." Sora mumbled, beginning to cry, "It's Riku. Riku's here..." before falling onto his knees while still holding Riku's hand, tears falling, relieved, sad and happy to finally reuight with his best friend who was also a brother to him. "I looked for you!" said Sora, silently crying.

Seeing this made Riku say, back in his normal voice, "C'mon, Sora. You've got to pull it together."

Wiping his tears, Sora said again, "I looked everywhere for you!"

"I didn't want you to find me." was Riku's reply.

Axel couldn't help but smile, before looking away. He wished he had this kind of reunion with his best friends. He listened to Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy talk about the clues Riku left behind, Riku explaining how he didn't want Sora to see him the way he was now, and how he used become this way in order to use the power of darkness, and that the battle isn't over yet and that Riku still needs the power of darkness.

Sora had so many friends, Axel thought it'd be kinda hard to keep up with them.

"Then, let's finish it." Sora declared, "You're still Riku, no matter what!" with Donald, Goofy and Kairi nodding in agreement. Riku just remained silent.

Just as Axel thought now would be the time to leave, Sora called out, "Axel! You coming with us?"

"Nah, just..." Axel paused, before finishing, "Just finish me off." much to everyone's confused shock.

"Though, before you guys do that," he turned around to face them, ruffling at his own hair, "I'd better tell you the truth; ya know, on why I took Kairi in the first place."

Donald looked annoyed by this, and demanded, "Well, just tell us!"

Sighing, Axel looked at them, and began, "The reason why I took Kairi...is so that..." he paused uncomfortably, "So that I could get to Sora to bring Roxas back, turning him...into a heartless."

"A heartless!?" Goofy asked, shocked.

"Yeah..."

"You wanted to turn me into a heartless and then find Roxas?" Sora asked, shocked and confused.

Axel groaned, "You seriously don't get it, do you?" before explaining, "Ever figured out why almost everyone in the Organization called you a traitor, and why Xigbar called you Roxas?" when Sora shook his head, Axel concluded, "Roxas's been with you all along. Because he's _your_ Nobody."

It confused Sora at first, but when he realised what Axel just said, he exclaimed, "My...Nobody!? But that's crazy! I never turned into a Heart..." he trailled off, before he realised what he was about to say, and remembered that he did turn into a Heartless a year ago, back in Radiant Garden when it was known as Hollow Bastion, before Sora turned back into a human thanks to Kairi. "Oh, right."

"It was when you came to rescue me, remember?" Kairi added, even she somehow knew.

"So that's why..." Sora realised, looking at Axel in annoyance.

"Yeah, pretty much." Axel shrugged sheepishly. "Xemnas found Roxas even after you turned back into a human. Out of all of us, Roxas was the only one who didn't remember anything about you, but at the same time, he didn't turn into a dusk because of your heart. He was brought into the Organization and I was assigned to mentor him for a while. He could use the Keyblade too, since he's your nobody and all."

"That's why Xemnas brought him into the Organization." Riku added.

Axel nodded, then continued, "Through out the time, since a week after he joined, Roxas and I began to hang out together, having Sea-Salt Ice Cream, and talking and all. As time moved on, he began to gain his own personality, becoming less and less zombie-like."

"Zombie?" Goofy asked, confused.

"He was totally like a zombie," Axel said, "Barely even forming a sentence until time continued on, then he became...well, more human than everybody else. I still don't get how, though, but maybe it was him being his own person slowly was the reason why I was starting to get my emotions back, even though I still have no heart. Though sometime later, he began to question himself, and despite that I tried to keep him from leaving, since I knew that if anyone gets on Xemnas's bad side, they'll end up destroyed. He left because he wanted answers-he didn't really betray us, but I guess I'm the only one who sees that."

Riku then took over, saying, "After that, I fought him because I thought it would help

you wake up. I lost, but the next time we met I made sure I was the stronger one." looking at Sora, "Maybe I didn't need to fight him after all. I think he left the

Organization because...he really wanted to meet you."

Axel approached Sora and added, "Yeah, I'm thinkin' the same thing. I guess you coming here must've woken Roxas up and the darkness messed up his head before, well, you know. And that's why I left, because I wanted things back the way they were. I thought that by turning you back into a heartless, I can get Roxas back."

When everyone else looked at him, he sighed, "But now I know that he wouldn't want me to do that. I kept a lot of secrets from him and I wish that I didn't. I kinda wish that you and he would both exist at the same time as yourselves and not just you, ya know?"

"Roxas..." Sora sighed, feeling a bit guilty for being cluless about all this. "I wish I could meet him, too."

Axel knew what Sora was thinking; the teen figured that Roxas should be his own person.

* * *

><p><strong>See you in the next chapter and keep up those reviews!<strong>


	5. Lea and Isa

**Second Chance.**

**Note: Hi, here's chapter 5! Please enjoy and note that I do not, I repeat, do NOT, own Kingdom Hearts.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>CH5: Lea and Isa.<strong>_

After a moment, Axel sighed, saddened that he knew that his death is coming. Might as well get it over with. "Well, now you know the truth. I got no reason to be around anymore, so..." he paused, struggling with his own words. Why was it so hard? Why was he hesitating? Finally, he managed to blurt out, "Just finish me already."

"No." Sora shook his head.

"What?" Axel asked, surprised.

Instead, Sora smiled, admitting, "I might not be like the Roxas you know, and I wish I can make him his own person, but, out of all of the Nobodies I've seen, I think you deserve a second chance. Roxas would want you to live anyway."

The pyro was stunned at this. Why was Sora saying this? Then Axel realised that maybe Xemnas really did lie and even got others like DiZ and whoever else believe that Nobodies were doomed to vanish forever for one thing, and Xehanort is after something he truly wants, that not even Axel knew what it was. Then again, was he really capable in having a second chance? One way or another, the redhead didn't think he would ever get his heart back. He would either remain as a Nobody or he'll just disappear forever. Still, he figured that as long as Roxas would remember him inside Sora's heart, Axel was glad.

"Come with us." Sora offered.

Hesitating a little, and even he knew that Donald and Goofy were doubting if Axel could be trusted, Axel finally nods, and said, "Alright. I'll join you. Besides, I want to get answers out of Xemnas. From what I learned from Xigbar earlier, I think they both lied to the rest of us, 'cuz he mentioned something about the thirteen of us were actually destined to become one single person, and not ourselves-even our minds were to disappear."

"Thirteen nobodies into one person?" Donald asked, skeptically.

"Your minds to disappear like that?" Goofy added in confusion.

Axel shrugged, "I still don't get what he meant, but he said something about that Kingdom Hearts is actually preventing us nobodies in getting our hearts back, and I'm beginning to think that he's right. So, I gotta know the truth."

"Then let's get going!" Sora declared, "Plus, the King's waiting!"

"Yeah! Let's get going!" Donald added.

With that, the six of them followed continued on to find Xemnas and put an end to this.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, both Mickey and Ansem had arrived at the closest ledge to Kingdom Hearts near a ramp that continued on to the very top of the tower, as Ansem placed his device on the floor, aiming it to Kingdom Hearts.<p>

"This spot should do." said Ansem.

Mickey glanced at the device, now getting a good look at it, wondering what it does, so he asked, "What's this gadget for?" he's seen many inventions through out his life, but this was completely new to him.

"It's a device to reclaim Kingdom Hearts and encode it as data." Ansem answered as he fiddled with it to begin.

"Not sure I get it." Mickey admitted, having a bad feeling about this.

Ansem had to agree, "I do not claim to know the outcome of this venture, either.

After all...Hearts are unpredictable." just as he turned it on, and with a beam of light, the machine shoots a steady beam at the moon, beginning to absorb it.

* * *

><p>Axel had told Sora and the others to wait in the Proof of Existence while he went to go and handle Luxord by entering the tenth member's room area, in the Havoc's Divide. As he arrived, he noticed something unusual with the heart-shaped moon; a beam connecting to it.<p>

"Wonder what that is." he thought to himself.

"So you survived, traitor!" a familiar voice spoke behind him.

Hearing this Axel immediately leaped out of the way to avoid becoming trapped within Luxord's cards, and came face to face with the card-wielding Nobody himself. Axel immediately summoned his chakrams, knowing that this guy was too much of a pirate-gambler to listen, and that they had to fight. Plus, Axel wanted to give this guy payback.

"Nice to see you, Luxord." Axel said, in sarcasm.

"I'd rather we just skip the formalities." Luxord replied.

Unfortunately, the fight, if that's what you would want to call it, only lasted for 2.5 seconds, as Axel had threw his chakarms at Luxord who tried to shield himself with his cards, but it didn't work as the weapons cut through the cards and slashed at the nobody who flinched in shock and horror, as Axel caught his weapons again.

"Why...why did you and Roxas...betray us?" Luxord grunted as he faded away.

Axel shook his head as he de-summoned his weapons, muttering, "So sorry, Lux'. I guess I was saving you from Xemnas's true agenda." before walking away to rejoin Sora and the others. When he returned to the Proof of Existence, the others gathered around him.

"You okay?" Sora asked.

"What, you think the others would finish me?" Axel smirked, knowing that this time he caught Luxord off-guard. "No way, I'm tough."

They then turned their attention to another doorway, and Axel furrowed his brows, while Riku muttered, "I can sense Saïx. He's using something to boost his power."

"Go figure." Axel muttered. '_He's not the guy I knew in the past anymore._'

"Let's all go." Sora suggested, "I bet he'll be twice as hard."

"But I'll fight him." Axel said, determined, before turning to face the others, saying, "If I don't make it out alive, I want you guys to continue on without me. Got it memorized?"

Despite wanting to protest that Axel shouldn't die, Sora and the others hesitatedly agreed, before they all entered the last door and into Addled Impasse and find Saïx who is looking up through a large window at Kingdom Hearts. Hearing movements behind him, Saïx turned and smiled, though it was a cold one as far as Axel's concerned. Axel knew, now and then, that his old friend was completely gone forever.

"It seems that you and Roxas had made it this far, Axel." Saïx said, summoning his claymore.

Axel responded, "Sticks and stones, man. Too bad that neither of us will ever get our hearts back." while summoning his chakrams in his hands.

Saïx smirked, before he willed his claymore to become sharper, much to Axel's dismay as the redhead groaned to the blue-haired nobody, "C'mon, that's just unfair."

Next thing he knew, a barrier appeared, trapping both nobodies, just as Sora, Riku and the others were about to join in the fight, but now all they could do was watch in horror. Axel sighed. They shouldn't worry about him. This was his choice to fight the nobody of his childhood friend.

"The Isa I knew...died on the same day as I did when I was Lea." Axel muttered, "You're just a...a body of guy I knew." fury growing inside his body.

"Hard to believe that you still remember my old name."

Sora glanced at the others, asking, "Saïx's real name is Isa?"

That's when Axel glared at that blue-haired nobody, saying which was quickly becoming a shout, "Unlike you, I get my close friends' names memorized!" and rushed forward and attacked.

Saïx dodged and blocked Axel's every attack, and slashed at him in return. Normally Axel would've enjoyed in fighting, but this was different. It was more brutal and deadly. Axel threw his chakrams at his Saïx who easily knocked them away as if they were frisbees, but as he did, he felt something jerk in his head, and right before his eyes, a memory entered his mind as he fought against Axel.

_"You seriously want these?" a twelve year old blue haired boy named Isa asked, as his best friend Lea, a boy at his age with bright red hair stared at the two creepy-looking frisbees through the window at a store._

_"Why not?" Lea asked, pouting._

_Isa looked at the objects again, seeing the strange looking balls of flame with evil cackle expressions on them, before muttering, "They're the creepiest things I've ever seen."_

_Lea glanced at him, pointing out, "They're awesome! They'd be perfect for weapons if I get into trouble."_

_"Weapons?" Isa asked, with an expression that said, 'Seriously?', before saying, "Please, if it were me, I'd easily knock them away like flies."_

_"I'm gonna go and get them, and just you watch, Isa. They're gonna be perfect." Lea said as he walked into the store to buy them. Deciding that just in case, Isa followed friend inside._

Blinking in confusion, Saïx shook his head, while Axel caught the weapons. The blue-haired Nobody then launched forward and powered up his attack Moon Shine Down. Axel was knocked back violently and skid across the floor before he was slammed against the wall, creating a large wall-crater on it. Sora and the others screamed out to him. But the pyro wasn't going to surrender easily. Instead, he waited until Saïx got up closer enough and wrapped out of the way just in time as the claymore stabs into the wall, missing it's target.

Cursing, Saïx turned just as Axel shot out fire at him, but the blue-haired Nobody blocked it, before sending a powerful shockwave at him. The redhead held up his chakrams to block the attack, struggling to stand his ground. He knew he had to end this, right here, right now. But he was still too weak to his finishing attack like he had against the dusks that could've taken his life.

Only one thing left to do.

Axel waited, seemingly surrending, much to Sora and the others' horror. Saïx saw this as his chance to eliminate him, as he charged forward.

"AXEL!" Sora screamed.

Just as Saïx was about to give a finishing blow, at the last second, Axel drew his hands together with his chakrams and Saïx, horrified, realised this too late as he suddenly impaled himself through the chakrams, right into his chest. Axel's eyes were shut closed, and he was shaking, seemingly in regret.

At this, another memory entered the blue-haired Nobody's mind.

_Seeing Lea walk out of the store, disappointed that he couldn't afford to get the frisbees, Isa sighed and turned towards the clerk of the store, saying, "I have 400 munny for the frisbees. Can I buy them?"_

_"Of course." the owner nodded and handed him the items in the bag as the boy handed him the money, before Isa thanked the owner and then walked out._

_Isa found Lea sitting near the water-fall fountains in the centre of town, looking miserable. The blue-haired boy shook his head, then approached his red-haired best friend, saying, "Lea. Here." handing him the bag._

_Puzzled, Lea looked into the bag, and his eyes widened in surprise as he pulled out the frisbees. "Isa...how did-why did-?" the redhaired boy stuttered, unable to believe that his friend actually did this, just for him. He looked back up at Isa who smiled._

_"I wanted to tell you to wait and that I had enough to get them, but you already walked out the door." Isa replied, "And just so you know, because you're my friend."_

_Grinning happily, Lea stood up and hugged his best friend, saying, "Thank you, Isa! You're the coolest friend in the universe! I love you!"_

_Instead of asking to be let go, Isa smirked, knowing how such a big kid his best friend was, but that was the best part of being friends with him. It's thanks to Lea that he didn't feel so lonely. Plus, he knew that Lea would do something similiar for him. He felt that they would always be together forever._

But why did they die and end up like this? Saïx was asking himself as he remembered almost everything now. Fighting against Axel, the nobody of his childhood friend, somehow triggered his most happiest memories. In shock at this, Saïx dropped his claymore, which crashes to the floor, and falls limp into Axel's arms, causing the redhead to caught him, dismissing his chakrams, but it was far too late to save Saïx now.

Both of them collasped onto their knees, with Axel holding his former friend in his arms, feeling emotional like he had with Roxas, except this was different. He couldn't believe that it had come to this. Axel remembered how, becoming a nobody, that he and Saïx wanted their hearts back so badly, yet not trusting Xemnas, they secretly plotted to defeat him and take over the Organization in order to get their hearts back.

However, Axel began to think that he gave what Xemnas wanted instead; he gave up on his childhood friend for orders and something more horrible. He lost Roxas because of Axel's own selfishness.

Saïx only turned his head to glance at the moon, whispering in shock and despair, "Why... Kingdom Hearts... Where is my heart?"

"Saïx..." Axel whispered to get his old friend's attention, clinging onto him to make him stay alive a bit longer for him to know the truth. When Saïx glanced at Axel again, the redhead muttered, "Kingdom Hearts wasn't going to give our hearts back. Xemnas lied to everyone, to all of us. Xigbar was his double-agent, even from the very beginning."

"W-What was you saying?" Saïx inquired, feeling betrayed.

Axel sighed, "I learned it from Xigbar before I got rid of him." he explained, "Kingdom Hearts was actually holding several hearts to prevent us getting our hearts back. Xemnas-no, Xehanort, he had a different idea. Something about making all thirteen of us turn into one single person, that would also destroy our minds."

After a pause, Axel concluded, "I believe that was Xemnas' true agenda."

"...We were never...going to get our hearts back...from the very beginning." Saïx muttered, realising how long it took, and why Xemnas never said anything, why he was supicious on the whole thing. Even Xigbar as well. Still..."But even so...you...went over to Roxas."

"I'm sorry." Axel muttered, "I'm really sorry. I didn't want to abandon you, but you changed so much, that you weren't the best friend I had when we were kids anymore. Becoming a nobody changed you...Isa."

Saïx sighed, beginning to fade away, admitting, "Perhaps you're right...Lea. I...pushed you too far away. I couldn't even save you."

Axel chuckled despite the pain in his throat, and the tears that began to fall. "Guess we're still both those boneheaded kids we were back then." he thought.

"At least you still have memories of us." Saïx chuckled, not the evil chuckle, but the chuckle of agreement, happiness and...sadness.

"I'd never forget my friends." Axel replied. "I just wish...I could've saved you."

Saïx sighed, "Perhaps...it's for the best..." before he faded completely, he muttered, "Lea...I'm sorry." and before Axel could say anything else, the blue-haired nobody was gone completely, and his arms were now empty in the air.

Saddened and hurt that he just lost another friend, Axel didn't borther in holding back his tears, as he softly cried, lowering his head and having his eyes shut. Now he could seriously no longer hide the fact that he had emotions all this time-all of them in the Organization did. He didn't notice that the barrier Saïx created disappeared, as Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy approached him, and, seeing him cry, and shed tears, made them all realise the similiar thing. Even Donald was stunned yet saddened at this.

None of them knew why, but they felt that Axel and Saïx, as Lea and Isa, had history together before becoming Nobodies. To think that Axel forced himself to kill Saïx who obviously wasn't the same as Axel knew him in the past, it was so hard. Sora would know, because he had to go through the similiar way with Riku who was feeling guilty for his own actions towards his best friend a year ago.

"Axel?" Kairi asked gently.

Hearing this, Axel sighed, trying to calm down, as he stood up, wiping away his tears with his sleeve, and muttered in a bit of a shaky tone, "I-I'm fine. I mean...I think I will be."

"It's okay if don't want to talk about it." Sora said, "I know how you feel."

Axel looked at him, and shook his head, saying, "I'd better tell you, even though Roxas probably won't hear me. Back when Saïx and I were kids, his real name was Isa and my real name was Lea." he then explained, "We grew up together, and were best friends. We got into a lot of trouble, but managed to get away. But one day, ten years ago, everything changed. I don't remember how, but...Isa and I got killed and lost our hearts. He sacrificed himself to try and protect me, but I got killed too. I remember as a Nobody that we both woke up in Twilight Town, and Xemnas approached us, changing our names."

He paused to sigh, and then continued, "We didn't really trust him back then. So, the two of us planned on over-taking the Organization to get our hearts back a lot quicker. In order to do so, I was assigned to find clues on Xemnas's true aganda. But instead, I messed up, because Saïx changed completely into a stranger in my eyes. He wasn't the Isa I knew anymore. Soon enough, I was more into hanging out with Roxas, and gave up on getting my heart back."

Feeling tears again, Axel shut his eyes to stop them, before he continued, "All I want now is...to have my friends back. It's all my fault that I lost Isa and Roxas, and that I got Kairi and you into this mess, Sora."

"It's not your fault, Axel." Sora pointed out, causing the redhaired nobody to look at him, as the teen continued, "Xehanort's the one who started all of this from the beginning, and we're gonna stop his other half, just like we stopped his Heartless!"

The others agreed with Sora on this one, and Axel, realising that he was right, sighed and nodded in agreement, and after a moment, said, "You're right. I'm gonna help you in stopping Xemnas, after I get answers out of him." now determinded to find those answers before he can disappear. He promised himself this and to Saïx and Roxas.

With that, the six of them began to walk away, as Axel decided, even if he was to disappear as well, he would do his best to hold onto his most precious memories. He owed his friends that.

However, he was unaware that his fate was going to go through a drastic change, along with Riku's body.

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><p><strong>I literally cried when I wrote the part of Saïx's departure. It was so sad. It was like I was placing my own emotions with Axel's and Lea's. I had to pause to get a tissue for my eyes and I might need another one. *Sniffle, sniffle*. <strong>

**Okay, I confess, I cry at the top of a hat at every emotional things. Alright, enough of me crying, please review, and I hope to reach 20 reviews for this story before the ending. I'll see you all in the next chapter. (Mumbles: Just wish Kingdom Hearts 3 would come out next year, but I don't see that happening, unfortunately. T_T)**


	6. Recompletion

**Second Chance.**

**Note: I think we can forget about my goal since it's too much. Sorry about that. Anyway, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. **

**One more thing, anyone ever thought that Jamieson Price, the guy who voices Reeve in Final Fantasy VII Compilation and Giovanni in the Pokemon Origins specials, could've been chosen as the new voice actor for Ansem the Wise instead of Corey Burton in Kingdom Hearts? **

**If you think about it, I think Jamieson and Christopher Lee sound similiar, and that Jamieson is perfect for Ansem. Well, to me, at least.**

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><p><em><strong>CH6: Recompletion.<strong>_

When things couldn't get any worse, apparently it was about to get worse. The beam was starting to flicker, and the device began to shake, but Ansem wasn't fazed at this. Instead, more guilt and understanding dawned onto the former ruler of Radient Garden. He failed his people and his home, he failed his goals, and he failed even at this.

"Ansem?" Mickey noticed a strange expression on his friend's face, before the younger King quirked an eyebrow, feeling that something wasn't right.

Ansem just laughed, before saying, "I'm a fool. I've spent years studying the workings of the heart. Yet it seems I still haven't learned a thing!"

"What d'ya mean?" Mickey asked.

"The process of encoding hearts is incalculable. The inhabitants of my Twilight Town were data created from real hearts." Ansem explained, "I was convinced that they would think and behave the way I had envisioned-but I couldn't have been more wrong. A heart is so much more than any system. I saw it when Roxas and Kairi crossed paths."

He paused, before sharing a glance at Mickey, continuing, "I knew. But I was too stubborn to accept it. It's always the same. I try to wrap my mind around things my heart already knows, only to fail. While I was trying to bring Sora back, I had so many plans in store. But once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart. All my research amounted to nothing, compared with that one boy's heart."

Ansem then thought of something else, and added, "As for Axel, that Nobody has grown into more human than the other nobodies. Possibly because of his friendship with Roxas. I wanted to be true that the young man was speaking nonesense in order for Roxas to merge with Sora, but it seems that even some Nobodies are unquie."

That's when Mickey finally noticed that the device was acting more and more violently, and the gut feeling inside him got worse. That's when he knew it was about to explode, because of the sudden electricity beginning to show. "Ansem! The machine!" he cried out.

But Ansem didn't move. Instead, he only said, "All the more proof that hearts cannot be contained by data." before turning to Mickey and told him, "Run, my friend! It's going to self-destruct, and anything could happen!"

"But..." Mickey trailled off, not wanting to believe that Ansem, his close friend, isn't going with him. Mickey had searched for a long time to find him, other than just ask him for some help. Mickey had worried, and he had to admit, he was happy to find Ansem again. He couldn't lose him again!

"Your majesty!" his thoughts were interrupeted when Sora called out to him, as the said boy, and the others had finally arrived, and even Ansem took notice. Axel, seeing him, skid to a stop, and, recongizing the clothes DiZ wore, yet the face was also familiar.

"You?" Axel asked, shocked to see DiZ again. He remembered seeing this guy in the fake Twilight Town when he first found Roxas again, who didn't even remember who Axel was at the time. Then again, why was the older man's face more familiar? The red-haired Nobody could've sworn he'd seen him before, sometime during his childhood.

Ansem didn't knowlage of Axel's shock, instead, he muttered, "Sora, the rest is up to you. And," he paused, finally sharing a glance at Axel, then added, "Axel; I don't expect your forgiveness, but, I am sorry, to you, and to Roxas. I doubt he can hear me."

'_Sorry?_' Axel thought. '_Why is he apologuising? And why the hell does he look familiar?_' though he was also shocked as he noticed some weird device that was going to literally explode and the old guy wasn't even moving! Was DiZ crazy?

"Ansem!" Mickey cried out in horror, trying to get his friend to get away.

But Ansem shook his head, grim and guilt, "My heart is telling me what I must do." he replied, "Please allow me to do what it says."

"No!" Mickey made a move to save him, only to have a hand grab hold of his arm. When the younger King looked, at first he thought he was confronting Xehanort's Heartless, but then remembered that the heartless was gone and only the body remained, meaning that the newcommer was Sora's best friend. "Riku!" he exclaimed. Mickey was relieved that Riku was alright, but he wanted to save Ansem.

Riku, though, seemed to understand Ansem's final choice. "His heart's decided. We can't change that."

Hearing the name Ansem gave Axel a pause. He glanced at the man who was once known as DiZ. Could he be...? He was snapped out of his thoughts as he and the others noticed an un-welcomed company appearing by teleport of darkness, and Axel's green eyes glared daggers at his former superior-Xemnas.

"I was wondering who would dare interfere with my Kingdom Hearts." said Xemnas, before he looked at Sora and the others, continuing, "And look-here you all are. How convenient for me."

He shared a glance at Axel, adding, "Including the traitor who was meant to disappear. It's quite astonding that you survived, Axel. Doesn't the desire of having a heart again no longer inquire you?"

Axel snorted, "You're the one the talk, Xemnas. I've heard from Xigbar that you weren't gonna let us have our hearts back to begin with. What's all this crap about turning all thirteen of us turning into one person that'll end up killing our minds, huh? I'd say that YOU'RE the traitor!" his anger getting the better of him, but he knew he had to control it.

"There are ways in creating clones." was Xemnas's answer. "Implanting a powerful heart into much needed and perfect vessels is the more simpiler way. It was much easier with those who no longer have hearts."

"Then why did you bring us in the first place!? You don't have a heart either!" Axel shouted. "I don't just...don't understand. You said that we Nobodies weren't meant to have feelings, but after spending time with Roxas, seeing how the kid became his own person more than being Sora, I was beginning to feel just like I was when I was a human. What about this cloning stuff?"

"That answer will come to you in time." Xemnas smirked, before turning his attention to Ansem and acknowlaged, "Ansem the Wise-you look pathetic."

That's when Axel's eyes widened at realisation. DiZ was him-he was Ansem the Wise all along, the real Ansem. More memories appeared in Axel's mind, and he remembered now, that this Ansem, was the ruler of Radient Garden, and Axel, as Lea, admired him. He and Isa had both dreamed in exploring Ansem's castle, and then he remembered that his death happened in a lab. But how, though?

"Have your laugh." Ansem muttered, "I deserve as much for failing to see you for

the fool you are."

Xemnas begged to differ. "Students do take after their teachers. Only a fool would be your apprentice. After all, none of this would have happened without you." he continued, as if addressing to an audience, "YOU are the source of all Heartless. It was your research that inspired me to go further than you ever dared."

'_Research...I don't understand_.' Axel thought, though he had a horrible feeling about this. In his chest, something was happening, and it was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, if not extremtely painful, almost as if he was about to disappear. His eyes mentally widened in realisation that he was beginning to disappear; he can feel his insides fading, just like when he was dying before Sora saved his life.

'_NO! Not now!_' Axel thought to himself, trying to hold on without anyone else noticing.

"I admit," Ansem continued, not looking at anyone, "My disregard brought chaos to more worlds than one." before questioning sharply, "But what were YOU seeking? You erased me from the world, only to take my name and continue research better left forgotten... Is this the answer you've been looking for?"

"All that and more." Xemnas replied, "I'm carrying on what you yourself began, and I'm creating a brand new world, one heart at a time. I thought you'd praise me, but

all you ever do is hold me back. I understand, though. Unlike me and unlike Axel, you have a heart. And you're powerless to control it. Consumed, by the jealousy you feel toward the student who surpassed you."

The red-haired Nobody grunted, giving a glare at Xemnas. That silver-haired guy loved to talk. And Demyx called Axel a loudmouth? Xemnas would've won 1st Prize in the "The most talkative being" Contest, square flat. Axel has seen people who were chatterboxes that would never shut up, but Xemnas loved to brag about Kingdom Hearts this, Kingdom Hearts that, and he was getting sick of it.

Ansem had other thoughts. "Xehanort. Foolish apprentice of a foolish man." he commented, before stating in his final determination, "You have surpassed nothing-only proved how little we both know. We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach. We're both ignorant-as oblivious as when we began. I'm afraid that any world you try to create..." he turned to glare at Xemnas, continuing, "Any world of yours...would be an empire of ignorance. That is why you and your creation are destined to fall!"

'_Was Xemnas...really trying to destroy everything, even us, to create a new world in his own image?_' Axel thought. '_Would he...really make clones of himself? What's going on?_' he began to feel scared, and normally he wasn't scared. He was now, though, even though he could no longer feel his heart. He shook off the dizzy-spell, trying to ignore the pain. He can't disappear, not now. For one thing, this confirmed his supicions that the Organization were never getting their hearts back, even from the very beginning.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Ansem declared, "We've said enough!" before the older man glanced at Riku, saying, "Riku, you know what to do!" to which the teen nodded, before Ansem glanced at Axel, adding, "Axel...You will know the truth."

"Huh?" Axel blinked. What was Ansem talking about.

"You will get your heart back, not the way you were told. That is one of the reasons why you were meant to disappear." Ansem continued, "You'll understand."

"What are you talking about!?" Axel demanded.

Unfortunately, he was ignored, as Ansem turned to Mickey who realised, in sorrow, that this would be the last time ever they would see each other. "King Mickey, my friend." Ansem nodded, face grim in hidden sorrow, "Forgive me."

"Farewell!" Ansem exclaimed one last time, as the machine then was shining in bright light.

Seeing this, Sora, Donald and Goofy, horrified at this, tried to rush over to save Ansem, but Riku and Axel, who also knew that Ansem was sacrificing himself to at least damage Kingdom Hearts, both blocked the trio's way by standing in front of them, and Kairi grabbed onto Mickey's arm to stop him from doing something crazy. Donald ended up tripping as he tried to run over. In an massive exploding light, shooting up into the air, while Xemnas teleported away, everyone else saw that the machine was gone.

Ansem disappeared as well. Mickey gasped, before looking at the floor, trying not to cry. The pain of losing his friend hurt him so much. He almost lost Goofy, he lost three other friends eleven years ago, and now he lost a friend who like him, a King who loved his people and his kingdom. Sora and the others were horrified that Ansem was actually dead. Axel understood.

However, as he and Riku both turned to look again, to their and everyone else's horror, the light continued to grow, and it began to push them back painfully, even though they tried to block it, but it was no use. They were thrown onto the floor, and all lost consciousness.

Axel layed there on his front, and this time, he felt himself fading away, again. He was losing consciousness, and even though he wanted to keep his promise to help in stopping Xemnas, he knew that he'll never get the chance now. Weakly managing to lift his head a little to Sora's unconscious form, he muttered, "Sora...Roxas...I'm sorry...the rest...the rest is...up to you...now..."

Finally, his eyes closed and his world went black. Unknown to him, and to the others, millions of hearts fall around the Castle That Never Was and into the streets where the Nobodies, seeing this, were trying to catch the hearts, as if sensing that they would finally get their hearts back at long last. It didn't seem to work, though. The hearts then touched the floor and vanished, before Heartless were born again, and now they were crawling their way up towards the castle.

However, one heart, as if sensing something, floated down towards the fading and unconscious Axel, before it slowly absorbed itself into his body, causing the darkness to disappear and his body glowed in light, almost engulfing him. As if to complete it's work, the lines underneath his eyes also disappeared, and his skin became a bit lighter and darker, as if tanned.

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><p><em>Falling into darkness, Axel felt strangely at peace. He figured that he was gone already, and decided to let it be. He didn't borther in opening his eyes, and decided to allow the darkness to swallow him. All he wanted was to sleep forever.<em>

_It seemed that the darkness had other ideas, because Axel felt himself slow down, and flickering his eyes open, as if tired, he straightened himself up, and landed on his feet, looking around and became fully aware of where he was. He was on a glass platform, with a picture of himself-no, of his originalself, with Isa, Roxas, Sora, Kairi, Namine, and a girl he didn't recongise yet felt familiar to him. The girl strongly resembled Kairi, but with black hair, and the Organization Black Coat._

_Who was she?_

_Axel's thoughts of the strange girl was quickly forgotten, as he looked up, and gasped softly, as he noticed a young figure lying on their back, unconsious. Rushing over as if he didn't control his body, Axel approached the figure and fell to his knees, gently holding the person in his arms. He recongised who this young man was._

_Himself-Lea-as a teenager. Despite looking deathly pale, Axel figured that his old-self hasn't changed a bit, and that the body felt warm, pulsing like a heart, and Axel could strangely feel it in his chest and not his arms. Realization dawned to him._

_This version of Lea was his heart. Was this truly the end?_

_Sighing, Axel embraced his old-self like a father to a child, wishing that they could both have a second chance._

_As if granting his wish, Lea's body began to glow, and when Axel looked, the body quickly grew into adulthood, in the very same body Axel's was now, but slightly different. This was when Axel realised, as a flood of memories appeared in his mind. One memory that he tried to remember finally returned to him, painfully._

_He saw an image of himself as Lea, as teenager, with Isa, in the lab, seeing a young man whom Axel thought was Ansem but was actually Xehanort, with a weapon that shockingly looked like a Keyblade. Xehanort grinned evily at the two, and Isa stood in front of Lea who was about to pull him to run, and took the hit of the weapon stabbing into his chest, Lea screaming out in horror and sorrow, watching his friend die in his arms, before Lea himself was stabbed, and Xehanort chuckled, before the two boys lost conscious and died._

_"Xehanort..." Axel grunted. Now he remembered. The very man whom turned himself into a Heartless and a Nobody was the same one who murdered him and Isa in the beginning. He turned back to his human-self who has now breathing, colour returning to his face._

_"I guess," Axel muttered, finally understanding as his expression softened. "I guess I can only help in memories." smiling at his original who was beginning to open his eyes. The real Lea looked up to see his Nobody who smiled in sadness, "Time to go, for both of us."_

_Axel then closed his eyes, while his original suddenly found the strength to hold himself up on his hands, as Axel then began to disappear in light and particles, just as Roxas did with Sora, and the next thing that happened, Axel vanished completely and his particles of light drifted into Lea's body, causing the young male to flinch, then light appeared above him, and the next thing Lea knew..._

_He felt as if he was awakening._

_Axel and Lea were finally recompleted and whole once more._

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><p>As if it seemed hours, the group finally began to regain consciousness. Sora and the others didn't notice that something happened to their red-haired companion. The youngest male lifted himself up, before noticing and softly gasping as he noticed that Riku was still unconscious.<p>

"Riku!" Sora cried out, before getting up and rushed over to his best friend, taking notice that Riku looked completely different now. The very same purplely-silver hair, the body build only a year older, at the age of sixteen, in an Organization coat and wearing a blindfold.

Riku had returned to his original-self. The sixteen year old groaned, slowly lifting himself up as he regained consciousness.

"Riku!" Sora said happily, as Kairi and the others stood around him, also seeing the good change for once. Riku, not yet knowing, only looked, as Donald and Goofy both exclaimed in amazement.

"Riku!" Kairi echoed Sora's happiness with her own.

Finally noticing that his eyes were closed despite seeing visions, Riku then realised that he was back to his old-self. He turned to Mickey for an explanation. But before the mouse King could say anything, another groan was heard and everyone turned to see a familar red-haired man, same as ever, also beginning to wake up.

"Axel!" Sora exclaimed, now worried for who he thought was the Nobody.

The redhead also finally regained consciousness at the strange event he just experinced before losing consciousness. Twitching his hand as if to test that he's still alive, he muttered, groggily and dazed, "Where...?" blinking his eyes open, slowly and painfully lifting himself up, asking, "What happened to me?"

Every single memory returned to him, and suddenly he realised that last thing he remembered, was the blast Ansem's machine caused, and that he was supposed to disappear. Axel held a hand to his forehead, groaning and dazed. He didn't get it. He then felt a familiar thumb inside his head and suddenly felt whole.

When he looked up to look at Sora and the others, they gaped in surprise. "What? What're you guys lookin' at? Something on my face?" he asked, a bit sarcastically.

"Uh, actually, somethin' kinda disappeared from your face, Axel." Goofy answered, a bit awkwardly.

'_Axel...Oh, right. But, that means..._' The redhead was confused at this. Too bad there weren't any mirriors around. Thankfully, Goofy, seeing this, summoned his shield and let the redhead burrow it to look at his reflection.

Axel's eyes widened as he looked at himself. He looked just like he was, but with a bit of a difference. His skin was more tanned, like in his teenaged years, his hair remained the same, his eyes were a mixture of blue and a dark green, and those lines...they were completely gone. He touched his face and his reflection copied him.

Now he knew that he felt something inside his chest; it was his heart. HIS heart. Lowering the shield, he looked at Sora and the others, saying, "I'm...I'm a person again." though in his tone, he couldn't believe it himself. Finally he took notice that Riku was different and blinked in surprise, "Whoa, Riku! You're..." he trailled off.

Both of the older males looked at Mickey who smiled, understanding how these good events happened, as he explained, "Ansem did say _"anything could happen"_."

"So you're saying that explosion not only managed to damage Xemnas's Kingdom Hearts, but it also turned Riku back to normal and had me get my heart back?" Axel summed up as he gave Goofy back his shield, before crossing his arms against his chest. He then remembered what Ansem told him.

'_Did you know all along, Ansem?_' He thought. '_Was Nobodies and Heartless destined to disappear the only way to return to normal? How does that make sense?_'

"I guess that means we can't call you Axel anymore." Goofy realised as he turned to the red-haired recompleted man, who snapped back to reality and then realised that what the knight said was true, and, for the first time in ages, he smiled.

"It's good to be Lea again." Axel-now once again known as Lea-agreed.

Everyone was silent, even Lea, who knew that, despite being whole again, knew that he was still Axel in body and spirit, because Axel is Lea and Lea is Axel. Both were the same person. As far as Lea's concerned, he still went through a lot as a Nobody. Now it was a matter in beating Xemnas.

"Riku, you gonna take that off?" Sora asked to his friend who went, "Oh." and Riku took off the blindfold, expecting to turn into Xehanort's Heartless again. But to his surprise and relief, Riku remained the same, and he opened his sea-blue eyes.

Lea seemed to sense this, because he approached and asked, "So, what's with the blindfold and all that?" before Mickey went up to the two of them and Sora.

"His eyes couldn't lie." was Mickey's answer.

"Oh, that explains it." Lea smiled, seeing the point.

"And And just who were you trying to fool? Huh? Huhhh?" Sora asked to his friend in a teasing way.

"Myself." Riku answered.

Lea rolled his eyes, "Good grief, that's the lamest excuse I've ever heard." smirking.

Even Sora agreed to this, "Yeah, c'mon, man! Why did you try to do so much on your own?" before pointing out, "You've got friends, like us!" gesturing at himself and Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy who all nodded in agreement. Despite though he had his heart back, Lea still felt uncomfortable. Even though he was human again, he didn't know what he'd do after Xemnas is defeated. Would he be able to finally go home? Nothing would be the same, and he found himself frowning in sadness. Isa was gone. Roxas was inside Sora. His parents were most likely dead. Namine would return to Kairi.

'_I'll figure that out later._' Lea decided to himself.

Riku was thankful for having his friends around, though he did know one thing. So he said this to Sora, "Have you forgotten? I'll do you why." before smirking, trying to hide his laughter, admitting teasingly, "'Cause I'm not a total sap like you."

Lea tried to hide his own laughter, while Sora pouted, "Say that again!" but the teasing moment was shattered as they heard a bad noise and all of them glanced up to see hearts floating back up to the ruined Kingdom Hearts.

"Uh-oooh!" Donald shivered, as he and the others rushed over to the ledge and saw millions of heartless crawling up towards them, which was bad. Lea was just lucky that his heart decided to float down towards him as Axel and recompleted him.

"What should we do?" Sora asked.

"For one thing, beating Xemnas is the only way to solve this problem." Lea answered, his determination returning to his expression.

Riku nodded in agreement, "He's the Organization last survivor."

Knowing that both of them were right, Sora nodded in agreement, "Right!"

As all of them turned to head up towards their final destination, Riku paused and ripped off his Organization cloak, seeing the no more need for it, before he followed the others to defeat Xemnas. Lea also knew, that the final battle was approaching quick and he wasn't going to let Xemnas-Xehanort, have his way anymore now that he remembered how he died in the first place.

It was going to be tough, but Lea/Axel wasn't going to give in again.

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><p><strong>Axel got his heart back and has been revived as Lea! But he's not out of the woods yet. If you all have time, continue those reviews and I'll see you in the next chapter.<strong>


	7. What it really means

**Second Chance.**

**Note: We're getting close to the end, and I think a sequal is at hand for Lea and the others. Let's move on, shall we? I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

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><p><em><strong>CH7: What it really means.<strong>_

_"_I'll come back soon, so don't worry. Not that you have a heart to worry anyway._" were Axel's last words to Roxas before he headed over to Castle Oblivion with Marluxia, Larxene, Lexeas, Zexion and Vexen, and the redhead remembered that quite well. Fortunatley for him, he was still alive after all the ordeal in the castle itself. The others, well, Sora and his companions got rid of the two traitors-Marluxia and Larxene-to which Axel dreaded on, not that he had a heart to dread, but anyway. Both Lexeus and Zexion were destroyed by Riku somewhere in the castle, and, by pretending to follow orders of Marluxia, Axel killed Vexen himself._

_He was still rather confused on how or why he enjoyed the entertainment that Sora managed to unknowingly give him, and that he enjoyed Roxas's company. Axel still recalled on what the youngest Nobody told him when they partnered up for the second time._

_"_I've learned that you're a great guy, Axel. You looked after me while the others didn't._" were the blonde-spiky-haired boy's words to him, to which, for the first time, Axel was stunned. The pyro had struggled to find the right words since he wasn't used to graditute from anyone, especially from kids. But as time moved on, which, thankfully, Roxas was becoming more and more aware since day seven, Axel found that he kinda liked being around the kid._

_Especially after the missions that they can both have sea-salt ice cream. After some days, Axel finally decided to meet up with Roxas in Twilight Town after some time to think. Good thing too, because he found Roxas being attacked by Heartless._

_Seeing this, he quickly summoned his Chakrams and threw one at the last heartless that tried to kill Roxas, saving him. While the youngest Nobody panted, Axel smirked as he spoke up to get his attention, "That was a close call, eh, Roxas?"_

_When Roxas looked up, his eyes widened in desbelieved shock, with an expression that he was freaking out, like seeing a blast from the past. Axel's smirk grew, while he desummoned his weapons, simply saying, "Yo!"_

_As he went up to Roxas, the said boy was shaking, pointing his Keyblade at Axel, shuttering, "A-Axel!?"_

_"What's wrong?" Axel asked, losing his smirk and held a confused look. "You look like you've seen a ghost."_

_Roxas quickly stood up and stated, "But, I heard that everyone was annilated at Castle Oblivion!" still unable to believe it._

_The older Nobody wasn't amused by this. "Oh come on. Did you really think that I would be annilated?" Axel asked, "Don't be stupid." he said before he gently flicked Roxas on the forehead, stating, "I told you not to worry, that I'd be back soon."_

_Despite the unexpected flick, Roxas beamed a smile at him, and from inside, Axel was surprised that he could see the signs of tears in the boy's eyes. That wasn't normal for Nobodies, was it?_

_"I'll go buy us some ice cream!" Roxas said before running off to get the treats. Axel watched him go, and, as though it was contagious, a smile formed on his lips, not the sinister smile he'd normally would have, but a different one._

_'_I seriously don't get it. I'm not supposed to have feelings, but..._' Feeling his face grow somewhat warm, Axel shook his head, still confused, but decided to worry about that later._

_Ten minutes later, the two of them were on the clock tower having ice cream, and after Roxas finished explaining what he heard while Axel was gone, the latter simply just said, "Those Dusk reports are half-assed. Don't listen to them." he should know, because, as a Nobody, he 'grew up' with the Dusks. Not that he grew up that much anyway._

_Roxas nodded, then said, "That reminds me, I started inviting Xi- up here."_

_"Xi-?" Axel asked, puzzled, then remembered where the name came from and said, "Oh, you mean number 14." before taking another bite out of his ice cream._

_"Yeah, and I said to her that when you came back, the three of us would all sit here and ice cream together." Roxas nodded._

_Just after he said this, a second later, Axel nearly choked on his ice cream and, like one would to a drink in shock and confusion, he spat it back out unexpectedly. Once he got his lungs back on track, he looked at Roxas who held a worried look as he witnessed what just happened._

_"Is...there a problem?" Roxas asked._

_Blinking, Axel this smiled and shook his head, saying, "Nah, not at all. What would you do without me?" and with that, the two of them shared a good laugh together, which, was another mystery to Axel, but for some reason...he liked it._

* * *

><p>Lea shook his head at the memory as he, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey were passing through the Ruins and Creation's Passage, with floating platforms, and an invisable path that lead up to the door to the very tower where Xemnas was, along with the nearly destroyed Kingdom Hearts. Where'd that memory come from?<p>

He then recalled the last memory, and wondered if the Organization did have fourteen members and not just thirteen? The fourteenth member a girl, and a name that started with an X and I? How strange, yet, he tried to remember who the girl was, and he felt...so sad that she wasn't around, and neither was Roxas. Still...It left him troubled, because of his time as Axel.

'_No, don't think like that. You've got a job a to._' Lea told himself. Or was that Axel telling him that? He couldn't tell.

Just as they were about to enter the doorway, Kairi exclaimed, "Sora! Riku!" causing everyone to turn around and see that she was pointing at the windows, which the heartless were crawling into and towards them to capture their hearts.

"There's gonna be no end to this." Riku muttered, grunting.

Lea knew what to do, and summoned his Chakrams, stating, "I can handle these losers."

"Together we can stop 'em!" Sora corrected, causing Riku and Lea to glance at him, and both of them smirked at the younger boy's statement. But before either of them could do anything, unexpectedly, from the darkness and puff of clouds, Maleficent and Pete appeared in front of them, but facing the heartless, stunning them. Although Lea never met them, he remembered Pete while in Agrabah with Roxas at one stage. Why are they here, and facing the Heartless?

"Begone from here!" says Maleficent, "Leave these creatures to us!"

Lea was even more dumbfounded. "Whaa?" he asked. What the hell was going on?

"But there's no way we can take 'em all!" Pete stated, being the big chicken that he was.

The evil Witch thought of her companion being foolish, as she replied, "I will be sending them after Xemnas." before inquiring, "Or, perhaps, you would rather

fight them yourself?"

The large humanriod cat thought about it for a moment, then looked at her scaredly and he said in a slight raise of panic, "Frankly my dear, I'd rather...RUN!"

"Off with you then!" Maleficent shooed away in annoyance.

Just as Lea was having trouble in not laughing, wondering, '_Now, how is it reasonable that these two are partners?_', Pete backed away, before noticing Mickey and stopped, turning to face his nemesis from a long time back.

"Well, if it ain't the boat-boy King." Pete smirked, his fear draining away.

Instead of being angry, Mickey just replied jokingly, "Time to weigh anchor, Captain Pete!" knowing all too well on how dumb and scared Pete normally was. They had history together in being enemies, and Mickey still remembered at one stage on how he always outsmarted Pete on the race right up to the formally named Un-named Mountain back in their world.

Not wanting to be seen like a coward that he was in front of Mickey, Pete just smirked, saying, "What, like "abandon ship"? I don't think so!"

Which was what Maleficent secretly planned in the first place. She then said to Sora and Mickey, "Do not forget, when I've destroyed them all, this castle shall be mine!"

"Go ahead if you want." Lea stated, "It's not like any of us are gonna be staying here." though half of that was in a hint of sarcasm.

"And who are you?" Maleficent asked, noticing the 'newcommer' in the Organization cloak.

Lea shook his head, answering, "Name's Lea. Got it memorized?" tapping the side of his head like he normally would. It also felt great to say his original name again too.

He didn't pay attention to what else Pete was saying, but he did notice that the fat-cat was standing next to Maleficent, this time, ready to fight the heartless. "Bring 'em on!" said Pete, before he and Maleficent charged towards the heartless, leaving the others behind to watch them go.

"We'd better hurry." Mickey stated.

"But..." Sora began.

But the King shook his head, remembering what both Ansem and Riku told him, saying firmly, though he could understand how Sora was feeling. "They're doing what their hearts command. We can't interfere."

"Besides," Lea began, placing a hand onto Sora's shoulder, "I seriously doubt that those two guys are gonna go down that easily. I might not know them, but they don't strike me as being defeated in just one or two hits." as he agreed with Mickey's statement.

Despite wanting to help, Sora told himself that Mickey and Lea were right. So, nodding to himself, he and the others continued on, ready to take down Xemnas once and for all. Lea lead them up to the Altar of Naught, and on the very top platform of the Castle, was Xemnas staring up at the damaged Kingdom Hearts. The redhead figured as much. Xemnas did nothing more than spend his entire time looking at the heart-shaped moon almost 24/7.

But that didn't matter now. Lea was prepared to get the answers that he needs, and then rip his former superior into several pieces until there's nothing left-literally. But he also had to control his anger, that anger which was for the loss of those he cared about, those he loved; Isa, Roxas, that girl, his parents, Namine, and his home.

"Ohh...my Kingdom Hearts...ruined." Xemnas said, as if he was moarning for a loss. Lea snorted at this, unamused. "Now I'll have to start all over again." Xemnas continued.

"Good luck with that," Lea said sarcastically, before stating, "'Cause that ain't gonna happen, and you want to know why?" he then summoned his Chakrams, and held them tightly in his grip, continuing, "It's because you're gonna end up disappearing!"

Xemnas ignored Lea's comments, and turned to face Sora, Riku and Mickey, saying, "Warriors of the Keyblade! Go forth, and bring me more hearts!"

"NO!" Sora, Riku and Mickey all exclaimed in unision while summoning and pointing their Keyblades at Xemnas at the same time.

"Told ya." Lea smirked at Xemnas who's expression didn't change.

The silver-haired Nobody shook his head, and inquired, "Denizens of light, answer this: Why do you hate the darkness?"

Mickey was the one to answer to that, explaining, "Aw, we don't hate it. It's just kinda...scary. But the world's made of light AND darkness. You can't have one without the other, 'cause darkness is half of everything." before sort of wondering himself, "Sorta makes ya wonder why we are scared of the dark."

"Simple: It's because of who or what's lurking inside it." Lea answered. "In the darkness, you can't tell on what's going on or what's gonna happen. That's why everyone's afraid of the dark."

"Then allow me another question." says Xemnas, "You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark-never given a choice?"

Riku sneered, "That's simple; It's because you mess up our worlds."

"And YOU alone, Xemnas." Lea added, softly growling, "Or should I say, Xehanort? You caused damage to everything from the very beginning, it's no wonder most of us Nobodies lost our hearts in the first place!"

Then Sora continued for both of them, "Even though Nobodies don't even exist and aren't sad about anything, I think there are some who make an exception! It's you who's the real heartless and nobody from the start! Even as a human, you were never sad about anything!" accusingly at Xemnas who chuckled.

"Very good. You don't miss a thing. I cannot feel-sorrow... No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist." said the Nobody.

Lea started trembling in anger, but he did his best to hold it in, while he said, glaring at Xemnas, "You knew from the very beginning on how heartless and nobodies work, and you lied to all of us, except for Xigbar! Here's some newsflash-when Ansem's device-thing damaged your Kingdom Hearts, as you can tell, it got Riku back to normal, and on top of that...I have my heart again!"

"So you know part of the truth." Xemnas stated. It wasn't a question.

"I remember everything now." Lea continued, "Ten years ago...it was YOU who killed Isa and me, causing both of us to split into a heartless and nobodies." which was shocking Sora and the others at this reveal, but he wasn't finished yet.

The redhead continued, "And if I remember correctly, you had a Keyblade too at some point. If that's the case, then why go through all the trouble in turning yourself into a heartless and a nobody and not use your keyblade, instead just used Roxas, and lie to us? What is it that you really want, Xemnas?"

"Xehanort had a Keyblade too!?" Goofy exclaimed in shock.

"He...was the reason how you lost your heart?" Sora asked, stunned and horrified at this, before facing Xemnas again who smiled evilly.

"That you will never know, Axel." Xemnas sneered, using a blast of energy towards the others, but Lea quickly stood in front of Sora and the others, using his Chakrams to block the attack, though he was struggling to hold it back without getting himself and the group killed. As if time seemed to have speed forward, when Lea lowered his weapons, he gasped as Xemnas had quickly levitated himself, doing something bad with the heart-shaped moon.

"Hear me, Kingdom Hearts! It seems we must begin anew." Xemnas was saying, "Ah, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words! You can no more be complete without me than I without you. Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lend me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that

hinder us."

Mickey cried out, "Xemnas, NO!" but he was ignored.

"Hearts quivering with hatred..." Xemnas continued.

"Xemnas, don't!" Sora shouted.

"Hearts burning with rage..."

"You'll never win!" Donald screamed.

"Hearts scarred by envy..."

Lea practically shouted at the top of his lungs, "SHUT UP, Xemnas!"

But Xemnas continued to ignore them as he continued to Kingdom Hearts, "That fool Ansem said the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!"

At this, the moon then glowed insanely bright, causing everyone to cover their eyes at the brightness. When everyone lowered their arms and the light disappeared, Xemnas was gone too, but they knew that he was around somewhere.

"Hey, don't run from us, coward!" Lea shouted.

"We're not gonna let him get away now!" Mickey said to the others who nodded in agreement, before Kairi told everyone to look and when they did, magically, a giant blue door appeared, just in front of the moon.

"What's goin' on?" Goofy asked.

Lea blinked in confusion. "What in the world is that?"

"Kingdom Hearts." Mickey said knowingly, as Lea turned to him, and the redhead asked, "That's Kingdom Hearts? But why did it appear out of nowhere?"

Mickey then explained, "The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!"

That made some sort of sense, though Lea can understand the worlds choosing Sora and his friends, but Lea himself? Even after what he's done? Was he ready to begin his atonement? Even so, he decided that he'll join them in the final battle. Then once Xemnas is finished, he'll work on what to do with his life.

"Xemnas's gotta be inside." Sora stated, having no fear what so ever.

"Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory...or oblivion. So, Sora...are you ready?" Riku stated and inquired.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" Sora replied.

Riku smiled, before saying, "Do you remember before? We stood facing each other on opposite sides of that door. Now we stand side-by-side. Let's go home together

this time."

"Yeah." Sora smiled back.

At this, Lea felt sad. While he was glad that Sora had his best friend back, the pyro himself lost everything, only to gain his heart again. What would he do now? '_Isa...Roxas...Namine...and...whoever the girl is...I'm sorry._' he thought.

'Don't be sad, Axel.' a female voice that sounded like Kairi spoke in his mind.

When Lea blinked, he suddenly found himself in an empty space, no sign of Sora or the others as he looked around for the source of the voice. Wondering where he was, when he looked again, standing in front of him, was Roxas, Isa, and the girl from his dream...when he got his heart back, except...she looked just like a fourteen year old Kairi, but with short black hair, a gentle smile, and an Organization coat.

"Who?" Lea asked, trying so hard to remember who she is.

'Everything will be alright.' said Roxas, also smiling. Isa didn't say anything, as he was in his adult-self, but lacked Saïx's 'X' scar, lacked the pointy ears, and his eyes...were his normal shaded green instead of the amber colour. Instead, he nodded with a sad smile.

Lea could've sworn that he was about to cry, and just as he was about to approach him, in another blink, he found himself back on the tower, and Sora and the others were there.

"You okay?" Donald asked, seeing the puzzled look on Lea's face.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Lea replied, before thinking to himself, '_That girl...who is she? Why can't I remember her?_'

He then shook his head, and decided to worry about that later. They had a job to do; the final battle was just inside these doors. Lea was not afraid. He was ready, even at the cost of his own life. He will do all of his power to help Sora to defeat Xemnas once and for all.

At this, Sora, Riku and Mickey stood together, touching their Keyblade together, as the weapons glowed brightly, before they pointed them up in the air, and as three beams of light shot into the dark sky, the door opened, revealing a path mystic realm inside, where their final battle is.

"Get ready, Xemnas." Sora stated, "It all ends here!"

'_It does end here._' Lea thought to himself. '_After that, everything will return to normal...except...for me._' knowing that despite all this, he had no clue on what to do.

He had no clue on what's ahead of him either.

* * *

><p><strong>The final battle begins in the next chapter, as well as more unexpected surprises! 50 points to those who can figure out the answer on what will happen in the next chapter! Continue those lovely reviews and We'll be back soon!<strong>


	8. Revenge

**Second Chance.**

**Note: Great news! A new Kingdom Hearts 3 video is supposedly made at a special event during the launch of KH 2.5 release! What I'm puzzled at is that the Land of Departure as a town...unless Sora travelled into the past, but that's my theory. And what's with the chess pieces? **

**Oh well, at least more info will be released next year, just as I predicted. So, if we're lucky, then maybe the game will (Finally) come out in 2016 at the earliest.**

**Anyway, this may be the final chapter of this story, but you never know. So, let's go, and remember, I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Those rights belong to Disney and Square Enix.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>CH8: Revenge and Reunion.<strong>_

As Lea and the others entered the door, the redhead was shocked that the area was like a replica of his former home of the World that Never Was. It wasn't that difficult the realise that it was a mere illusion created by Xemnas, but the former Nobody was amazed that this guy was a lot stronger than he gave credit for. It was also uncomfortable that the sky was dark-blood red, which stupidly reminded him of his mother's hair colour.

But his thoughts were broken as he and Sora looked up and gasped softly. On top of a castle that seemed to be actually moving, was Xemnas who still looked as normal as ever, but both and the others knew, that he was just as strong as he was before now.

"So...it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration." Xemnas stated, before glancing at Lea and added, "And your heart has once again lead you to your doom. Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that."

That's when Lea realised that Xemnas was expecting them, because he turned to the others and cried out, "Look out!" just as Xemnas uses his powers to send a building straight towards them.

The seven of them immediately turned around to avoid being crushed by the large building, only for Mickey and Kairi to end up back outside of the door, and Sora, Riku, Lea, Donald and Goofy on the ground just near it, and to their shock, the door closes, just as Mickey realised it. But he was too late as he tried to rush back to the others who got up and saw what happened.

"No!" Riku cried out as he reached out, but was too late. They were trapped inside with Xemnas.

Sora, being the boy that he was, knew that the only way back out was to defeat Xemnas. He turned around, summoning his Keyblade and declared, "We can take him on our own!"

Hearing this made the others realise that he was right, and, the rest of them nodding, followed his lead by summoning their weapons, preparing for the final battle as it begun. They then immediately charged towards their final opponent. Several windowed walls punch up from the floor blocking them from continuing, but Sora easily slices through them with his Keyblade, as the walls were sliced into pieces and crumbled into nothing.

"That's what I call a Keyblade master." Lea smirked, very impressed. In truth, he could almost sense that Roxas was helping by giving his own strength to Sora, considering how both of them were the same people.

With that, the five of them quickly hurried towards their goal, destroying incoming Nobodies, which Lea then threw his chakrams at giant Thornside nobodies while avoiding being captured, Riku leaping into the air and throwing his Way-To-Dawn Keyblade like a boomarang, a skill that he learned mentally from Sora a year ago, Donald using his latest fire-cracker magical spell to destroy several Nobodies, and Goofy using his tornado skill he learned, using his shield to knock the enemies away.

Just as they were about to continue, Xemnas, watching this in amusement, then metnally ordered his gigantic mecha and caused it to fly in the sky before he came crushing down to the ground. The next thing Sora and his friends knew, was that platform they're standing on rises up to the mecha's level. Several buildings fly through the air toward them. Not willing to give up, Sora, with his unrealised superhuman abilities, leaped into the air once more and like he did with the walls earlier, breaks them up into several pieces with his Keyblade, before going into his Valor form, his clothes changing completely red, the Oathkeeper Keyblade appearing his his left hand, and with faster skills, slices up more Nobodies, before the others caught up.

Sora then runs across the top of them and slices through. The last one sends them into the cylinder of the flying mecha. But it was nothing Sora and his friends couldn't handle, as they then fought long and hard against the Nobodies, to which Lea suddenly realised that his strength had returned to full health ever since getting his heart back.

"Guys, this way!" Sora called, as he ran up to the side of the side pipes. Getting the hint, Riku, Lea, Donald and Goofy followed, all of them dodging the large wave of energy which erupts from the cylinder. They jump to the other cylinder and slide across the grate. Unfortunately, more enemies appear, trapping the group once more.

"Out of the way!" Lea shouted as if casted a powerful fireblast at the Nobodies. Sora, Donald and Riku aided him by using their own fire spells, which made Lea's fire abilities from his time as Axel become stronger. They and Goofy then leaped out of the way as a surge of energy blasted towards them, but instead the blast destroyed the Nobodies.

They were seriously thankful that the Heartless weren't around. During the blast, as they managed to reach their destination on time, the cylinder drops off the mecha. As the second cylinder is destroyed, they all nodded to each other, before jumping down into the very core, which felt more like a prison cell, but they noticed something in front of them.

"You think that'll lead to Xemnas?" Goofy asked.

"Let's just hope." Riku replied.

"Knowing our luck, the only way to get through is to make a hole through that thing." Lea stated, ready to continue. He came this far to get his revenge on the Nobody-half of the man who killed him, took away everything he cared for and loved, and used him and lied to him for ten agonising years.

"So, feeling nervous?" Sora asked to the redhead, in a similiar way he did when they both were cornered by the Nobodies before Axel returned as Lea.

The said pyro smirked, "Nah. This thing's a piece of junk."

A piece of junk later, a door opened and immediately all five of them leaped in, and as they did, they found themselves in a some sort of throne room on a floating platform in a sky of darkness. In front of them, was an armored being sitting in the throne like a king, weapons that are not laser-swords but rather several of them as he held them in his arsenal.

"Xemnas?" Lea asked in disbelief.

"_**Cursed fools!**_" roared the familiar but now deeper voice of Xemnas.

Getting the hint, Sora, Riku, Lea, Donald and Goofy once again got ready and the real fight has finally begun. Donald had already casted cure on his friends and himself, knowing that they were getting exhausted on their way here, and now the time has come to finish this.

Sora when first as he attempted to slice Xemnas, but surprisingly, the Nobody Lord had summoned up Xaldin's weapons, and blocked his attack, until Riku slashed at them, with the aid of Goofy who threw his shield, hitting Xemnas on the head, but not enough to render the enemy unconscious, unfortunately. Donald then summoned a thunder spell, but it was absorbed by knives and send them back, but Lea held up his chakrams to block the attack, but got zapped himself as he screamed in pain.

He fell to his left knee, but the redhaired man wasn't going down that easily.

Suddenly, being caught off-guard, Xemnas creates a powerful wave of energy and blasts at all five of them, the group screaming in agony, before the attack stopped, and they all fell onto their knees in pain, while Donald and Goofy were renderd to unconsciousness and were both comically seeing stars around their heads.

'_Damn! He's using the rest of the Organization's abilites!_' Lea thought to himself. '_How can we stop him like this?_'

'Axel, don't give up!' came a familiar boy's voice.

Lea blinked, thinking, '_Roxas?_'

'Axel, please! We believe in you! You're the only one who can help Sora!' came the girl's voice that sounded like Kairi, but was no doubt a different girl.

'Xi...Xi...why can't I remember!? I know that voice, but who is she!?' Lea thought in frustration. He wanted to remember. 'Come on!' but then it hit him. Xi and On sound combined together. More memories then appeared in his mind, and to Axel's last existance within Lea.

* * *

><p><em>"Teach him well, Axel." said Saix as he was sending Axel to guide Roxas on the latter's first mission.<em>

_The redhaired Nobody smirked, replying, "Don't worry. I'll be sure he makes the grade." before turning to the blonde-haired Nobody, saying to them they were leaving, but then noticed that the boy was looking at their newest member, whom Axel sort of figured was a girl considering her figure and that Larxene was the first female member of the organization._

_"What's wrong? You worried about the new kid?" Axel asked, before trying to recall the name, "What was that name again..."_

_Saix, in slight annoyance, answered, "Number XIV, _Xion_."_

_Axel nodded, "Right. I knew that."_

_"Xion..." Roxas repeated absently, his mind still cloudly._

_"Got it memorized, Roxas?" Axel asked as he approached the thirteenth member._

* * *

><p>In another flash-back.<p>

_Sensing that Xion was in trouble, Roxas immediately went over to the abandoned mansion with Axel, and immediately the two of them noticed a Veil Lizard Heartless, before they noticed the fourteenth member, Xion, her hood off in Roxas's eyes, but up in Axel's, as the black-haired girl tried to attack, but was accidenlty distracted by Roxas, causing the heartless to knock her unconscious._

_"Xion!" Roxas cried out in horror._

_Axel knew what to do, as he cried out to his friend in determination, "Roxas! We have to take that thing out first!" as he summoned his weapons. Roxas quickly followed his lead, and together, the two of them finished off the heartless, and collected it's heart for Kingdom Hearts._

_In another flash-back; after being introduced to Xion, she, Roxas and Axel were back on top of the clock tower, where Xion admitted that she lost her abilty to use the keyblade, and her worries, making Roxas worried. Axel had to admit, he was worried too._

_"We can't do anything?" Roxas asked._

_"I already told you, there's nothing we ca-" Axel cuts himself off as an idea appeared in his mind. "Hold on..."_

_"Did you think of something?" Roxas asked, catching his friend's look, and hope started to fill up within Xion._

_Axel then looked at Roxas and says, "Roxas, you can work double duty?"_

_"Huh?" inquired the boy._

_Xion tilted her head slightly, "What do you mean?"_

_The pyro mentally nodded to himself, and smiled, explaning, "Xion, make sure your missions are with Roxas-until you can use the Keyblade again. That way, he can collect the hearts, and no one will know that you can't use the Keyblade."_

_His two friends thought of this as a brillant idea, and Roxas agreed to capture twice as many hearts, and, Axel had to admit, he was surprised when Xion asked if they could be friends, and when he replied that they could, in a blink of his eyes, Xion had her hood down, and to him, she strongly resembled to Kairi and Namine, which was strange. But she was a nice girl._

* * *

><p><em>After several days, the three of them became closer and closer. On day, Axel, alone on the clock tower, was on his back, exhausted, his hands behind his , what he didn't expect, was a face to suddenly appear above him, saying, "Axel!"<em>

_"Whoa!" Axel exclaimed in fright, before realising it was Roxas and Xion, asking, "Where'd you come from?" causing his two friends to laugh. He honestly didn't hear them coming._

_"How was your mission?" Roxas asked, still smiling._

_Axel shrugged, "You know, I sure wish the Heartless would hold still once in a while. I fell right on my butt chasing them around."_

_"I thought you said you were tough." Roxas pointed out._

_"Yeah, whatever, that's got nothing to do with it." Axel grumbled. He then remembered something and glanced at the two, asking, "So how did your caper go?"_

_Roxas looked at Xion who nodded, then closed her eyes, held out her hand, and a Keyblade appeared, identical to Roxas', thus, Sora's._

_"Ta-daaah!" says Roxas._

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><p>In Lea's mind, more and more memories appeared of his time as Axel, making things more sense, but more painful memories appeared, and suddenly, Lea felt like smacking himself for not remembering sooner, the more memories of Xion returning, and her connections with Sora and Roxas, until the memory of when he saw Xion for the very last time, and it wasn't even pretty.<p>

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><p><em>Axel was sent of retrieve Xion who was attempting to destroy herself in order for Roxas to survive, and Sora to awaken once again, even if the memories of her will disappear forever, and on top of that, she was refusing to return with him, because...it was the right thing to do, but he didn't want to lose her. He already lost Roxas, and lost Isa as Lea.<em>

_"Please don't hold back, Axel. Promise." Xion pleaded, her voice cracking and on the verge of crying, as she held a tight grip on her Keyblade._

_He was struggling with his emotions himself. Why did everything had to be taken away from him!? "What's your problem!?" Axel shouted, "You both...think you can do whatever you want. Well, I'm sick of it. Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!"_

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><p>The last thing he remembered was he carried Xion back, but lost consciousness. Lea tears began to fill up his eyes, as he realised that he failed his friends, and it was his own fault. But now, both of them, having returned to Sora, were counting on Lea to help Sora, to defeat Xemnas. Because if Sora is finished, then Lea would lose Roxas and Xion all together and all three of them would cease to exist.<p>

'_No..._' Lea thought, tears falling and he didn't borther to stop them. '_I won't...let that happen._' he might be able to get his friends back, but at least he can do what he can to keep Sora and his friends safe, even if it'll be the end of him.

Struggling to his feet, Lea stood up, his chakrams tightly in his hands, as Xemnas seemed to be laughing, mocking him.

"Go ahead and laugh." Lea muttered, "That's the last one you'll ever have."

Xemnas smirked behind his helmet, as he replied, "_**I will not allow it to end this way-not yet. If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same... Eternal!**_"

"You're right." someone behind Lea said, and as the redhead turned to look, Riku had gotten up himself, struggling but still alive, as the silver-haired teen added, "Light and darkness are eternal. Nothing probably goes on forever, too. But guess what, Xemnas?"

To Lea's further surprise, Sora was standing next to him to the left, as the spiky-haired teen concluded for Riku, "That doesn't mean YOU'RE eternal!"

Xemnas laughed again, stating, "_**There is no such thing as light!**_"

"Wanna make a bet!?" Lea yelled. He dashed forward as Sora and Riku followed, and quickly the three of them fought long and hard against their enemy. Lea slashed against the other weapons, Riku fighting against a clone of Xemnas, before he and and Lea blocked Xemnas attempted attack on Sora, and then Sora once again got into his valor form and smashes Xemnas with his and Riku's blades, spinning him back. Sora crosses the Keyblades and knocks Xemnas high into the air.

Lea then covered his own body and used the powerful fire-tornado attack, both fire blasts and his weapons hitting Xemnas multiple times, before the Nobody was still in the air, covered in flames, while the redhaired man collasped onto his knees, panting and exhausted, but this time, his powerful attack wasn't enough to kill him.

At last, Sora and Riku, both nodding to each other and seeing that they were close to winning, both touched Sora's keyblade and aimed it at Xemnas, both sending a beam through Xemnas's chest. Xemnas screamed in agony as he exploded into smoke and light, just as Donald and Goofy recovered just in time to witness this, and Lea looked up, and then, he sighed in relief.

It was over. Xemnas was finished.

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><p><strong>I'll be posting the final chapter today too, so, don't go anywhere just yet guys, and continue on with your great reviews!<strong>


	9. Reunion-To Be Continued

**Second Chance.**

**Note: Here's the final chapter, and after this, a sequal shall be made! Let's go! I do not own Kingdom Hearts.**

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><p><em><strong>CH9: Reunion.<strong>_

In a flash and a blink of an eye, Sora, Riku, Lea, Donald and Goofy suddenly found themselves back with Mickey and Kairi on the Altar of Naught. All of them then held onto their weapons, as Xemnas, dying and weakened, unable to believe that he wa defeated, and he no strength or ability to recover himself, collasped onto his knees, and held onto his chest, losing his strength.

"Cursed...Keyblades...I need...more rage...more hearts..." he muttered to himself, furious.

While Lea was attempting to tell his former leader to shut up, Sora beats him to it, but the latter instead explained, as though he felt sorry for him. "Xemnas," Sora began, "There's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings." before asking, "Don't you remember?"

"Unfortunately...I don't." was Xemnas' final words, as he faded away completely, and that's when Lea knew, that Xemnas was gone for good. It was finally over.

As he sighed while he and the others put away their weapons, Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy were celebrating, and Mickey praised them happily. Riku on the other hand, just walked over to a railing, staring out into the dark distance. Lea just stood there, glancing at the ground. He should be celebrating himself, but he wasn't. Now that it was all over, Lea had nothing else to do. His friends and family were gone, and he commited too many crimes.

'_How am I ever supposed to atone for that?_' he thought to himself.

In the meantime, after Mickey congratulated them, Sora noticed where Riku was, and approached his best friend, happy that he has his friends back, and now that they can all finally go home. The teen wouldn't have dreamed for anything better than this.

"You're coming back with us, right?" Sora asked with a smile.

But Riku, having similiar feelings like Lea, replied, feeling guilty for his own actions, "I had given in to the darkness."

"Riku!" Sora gasped.

"How'm I gonna face everyone?" Riku demanded as he turned around, only for Sora to have his hands on his cheeks.

"Like this!" the latter replied as he comically squishes his face in, making his eyes go into different directions, and having the most stupidest expression out.

Unable to hold himself, and remembering how such a comic relief Sora was, Riku tried to hold in his smirk, but in the end, ended up bursting into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Lea asked, hearing Riku laugh, before curiously walking over, and when he saw Sora's expression, even the redhead couldn't resist and he bursted into a loud laughter, as Sora lets go of his own face, smirking that he managed to make two depressed guys laugh, making them both feel a bit better.

Suddenly a large quake shook the castle violently, and everyone glanced around, before it stopped. They realised that with Xemnas gone, the Castle that Never Was was collasping. The others approached the trio and Mickey exclaimed, "Hurry!"

"I'll open a path." Riku declared as he held out his hand, concentrating. But nothing happened. He looked at his hand in shocked confusioned, and Lea realised that not only the boy got his body back, but the last power of Xehanort's heartless has been destroyed as well.

Mickey seemed to have the same idea, because he answerd Riku's unasked question, "You don't belong in the dark realm anymore, Riku."

"But how do we get outta here, you majesty?" Donald asked, worried.

"Hmm..." Mickey thought, realising this and felt a bit silly as he didn't think about that. '_Oops._' he thought.

Lea thought about it, and, worried for his own dark powers, suggested, "Maybe I can, hopefully, but don't hold your breath, guys." getting everyone else's attentions, as he turned to face where Kingdom Hearts once was(and is now gone), and held up his hand, closing his eyes and concentrated.

'_Please let this work._' he thought to himself. At first, nothing happened, but when he opened his eyes again, mentally panicking, from his hand, a swift of darkness appeared and a portal opened up, leading them out of this place. He and the others sighed in relief.

"It worked, Axel!" Goofy cheered.

Lea flinched, but then decided to forget about it. Turning, he nodded to the group, and said, "Better get goin'." before all of the sudden, a familiar dog appeared out of nowhere, and Lea jumped out of the way to avoid the mutt, remembering how this dog was with Kairi, also remembering that Xion adopted it at one stage. Suddenly it made sense to Lea on why Pluto licked him on the face back at Destiny Islands.

It also made sense that the dog belonged to Mickey, because the King was happy to see his beloved pet again, hugging the dog's head, saying, "Aww, Pluto! I missed you too, pal!" allowing Pluto to lick his face, before the dog ran around happily in circles, nearly knocking Mickey(who yelped happily) and Donald(who grumbled, "Hey!") before entering the portal, not once attack Lea who sighed in relief.

"Well," Lea began awkwardly, "Now I know where the pooch came from." scratching the back of his head, messing up his hair even further. Nobody even noticed that Sora's body was strangely glowing, as did Kairi's.

"Wait for me!" Goofy cried out as he ran into the portal, not wanting to be left behind. Mickey then also ran in, followed by Donald.

Nodding to himself, Lea didn't move, as Sora, Riku and Kairi approached but stopped by his side, looking up at him.

"You're coming with us too?" Sora asked.

To his surprise, Lea gave Sora a sad smile and replied, "Nah, you guys go on ahead. I'm staying."

"What?!" the three teenagers gasped.

"Why?" Kairi cried out.

Lea shrugged, answering, "I got nothin' left. So, what's the point?"

"But you just got your heart back." Sora pointed out.

"It still doesn't change a thing now." Lea continued, "Besides, I won't be able to atone for all I've done. So, I'm letting you guys head back home, while I stay here, just in case something else happens."

Sora, Riku and Kairi all glanced at each other, before Sora looked back at Lea and said, "That's not gonna happen. Besides, I seriously don't think Roxas would want that. If anything, I think he wants you to come with us anyway."

"He's you." Lea reminded, even though he wanted to agree with Sora that Roxas was his own person as well.

"No." Sora shook his head, "I'm me and he's him. I just...I just wish I can help him, make him his own person, and...other than that, during the battle with Xemnas, I kept on seeing visions of a girl who looks just like Kairi but with black hair, and from what I understand, I want to help her too."

Riku blinked in surprise, as he muttered, "How can you see Xion?" while he was surprised even further that during the battle, he too remembered Xion.

"What? You remember her too?" Lea asked, shocked as he glanced at Riku who nodded and replied, "It was during the battle with Xemnas."

Kairi looked at the three males and asked curiously, "Who's Xion?"

"She's..." Lea began slowly, "She's Sora's replica, created by the Organization to hold onto Sora's memories while he was asleep to get his memories back with Namine's help. It's a long story, but like Roxas, Xion began to form emotions and memories of her own." then stated, "There's not much time. Now go." knowing that time was running out.

"Axel...I mean, Lea..." Sora whispered.

However, just before anyone could say anything else, Lea's dark portal suddenly closed, and just as the group began to panic, in it's place, was a corridor of bright light appeared out of nowhere, and it became so bright that all four of them had to cover their eyes, and, as another figure approached, she too had to cover her eyes, and the next thing they knew, they were swallowed into the door to light.

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><p>He didn't know how long he was passed out, but as he began to regain consciousness, Lea could hear the sound of the ocean waves, the squaks of the seagulls, and could feel the salty but refreshing see air. Was he dreaming? Was he in the next life?<p>

Blinking his eyes open, Lea held up a hand over his eyes to block out the setting sunlight, before sitting up slowly, just in time to see Sora, Riku and Kairi get up and being hugged in an reunion with King Mickey, Donald and Goofy, all of them smilling as they, and Lea, all realised that they were on Destiny Islands-Sora and Riku's home world, and the home Kairi grew up in.

"We-we're back!" Sora said happily to Kairi who also smiled, and the latter replied, "You're home." and in an embrace, Sora handed Kairi back her good charm just as he promised a year ago.

Lea couldn't help but smile at the reunion, then decided to stay out of it and just continued to sit on the sand as he gazed out at the ocean, having always wanted to come here. This place, while small, was more beautiful than he ever imagined.

He could feel Sora and the others then turn to him, but as they did, they gasped in confusion, which caught his attention as he turned to see their surprised expressions, which made him confused as he quirked an eyebrow. "What?" he asked.

"Axel?" came a familiar voice right next to him to his right, and Lea's eyes widened. Could it be? No, it couldn't...

Quickly turning, his eyes widened even further, feeling so many emotions mixing up inside his heart. Standing up and looking again, Lea couldn't believe what he was seeing. Standing in front of him, was a familiar blonde-haired boy, in his normal clothes, a girl in a white dress and blonde hair and sandles, and finally, a girl around fourteen, just like Kairi except that her hair was black, and she was wearing an organization coat like Lea was, and the three teens were just as shocked as the others.

Unable to do anything, all Lea could mutter was, "...Am I really dreaming?" hoping against hope that this was real.

"I'm not sure." Roxas replied, feeling sheepish, but he did say, "Though I think we have an idea on how this happened." glancing behind Lea to notice Sora who, along with his friends, approached and continued to stare in shock.

"We think it's because that you remembered us, and whatever happened to Ansem that somehow gave you the ability to help Sora and Kairi to keep their human forms and stay whole, while you remembered Xion with Riku's help, and when Xemnas disappeared, Sora's heart opened the door to light, and..." Namine trailled off.

"And made you guys...human?" Sora asked.

"We have our own hearts now." Xion nodded.

Lea's mind was swirling into so many questions, but he didn't know where to start. To think that this was actually happening was too good to be true. Instead, he opted to approach the three former Nobodies and wrapped his arms around the three of them, and startling them. They didn't disappear. They were real.

Realising this, Lea began to choke, falling to his knees and just continued to hug Roxas, Namine and Xion, crying. He couldn't say anything. He just couldn't.

Until he managed to say, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry." as he knew that he put all three of them into danger.

Instead of replying, Roxas, Namine and Xion, also all tearing up, hugged Lea in return, the four of them finally reunited, and Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald and Goofy all smiled, happy that Lea not only had gotten his heart back, but Roxas, Namine and Xion, against all odds, were made human.

All four of them were given a second chance.

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><p>Meanwhile, in the Realm of Darkness, Aqua, who, for eleven long years, continued to wonder trapped, unable to escape, but surprisingly, she still looked the same as she had been before she sacrificed herself to save Terra. She reached a river, and noticed a bottle near the shore.<p>

Curious, she approached it, picked it up and shook out what appears to be a letter and read it.

"_Think of you wherever you are_." Aqua read.

"_We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. _

_Now I will step forward to realize this wish._

_And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard or maybe it has_

_already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky-one sky,_

_one destiny._

_-Kairi._"

Aqua's eyes teared up as she held the letter close to her heart. She knew that the letter is for someone important, but she remembered Kairi when the latter was a four year old little girl in Radient Garden.

"Kairi...I'm so glad that you're still safe." the blue-haired woman said. Nodding, the Keyblade master continued on, with another new determination to find a way back to the Realm of Light, no matter how long it took.

What she, and the others in the Realm of Light were unaware of, was that the threat of their greatest enemy was only just beginning.

_**TO BE CONTINUED...**_

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><p><strong>And that's the end of part one of this new series. The adventures of our heroes continue in the next story, which, my friends, I shall give to you, titled, "Second Life", and more suprises shall be revealed next time. Continue those reviews, and I shall see you again in the sequel.<strong>

**So farewell but not goodbye! Oh, and let's also be excited for the preview of the new Kingdom Hearts 3 video sometime this month before christmas!**


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